THE  GIFT  OF 

MAY  TREAT  MORRISON 

IN  MEMORY  OF 

ALEXANDER  F  MORRISON 


DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 


DEMOCRACY 
IN   THE    MAKING 

FORD   HALL   AND    THE 
OPEN  FORUM  MOVEMENT 

A  SYMPOSIUM 

EDITED   BY 

GEORGE  W.  COLEMAN 


inon-referTI 


^WVAD  •  Q3S 


BOSTON 

LITTLE,  BROWN,  AND  COMPANY 

1915 


Copyright,  1915, 
By  Little,  Brown,  and  Company. 


All  rights  reserved 
Published,  October,  1915 


PtttttVl'H 

S.  J.  Pakkeill  a  Co.,  Boston,  U.S.A. 


Hrtes 

F7C6 


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TO   MY   WIFE 

WITHOUT   WHOM   ALL   THIS 

WOULD  HAVE   BEEN   IMPOSSIBLE 


4S1718 


THE  EDITOR'S  EXPLANATION 

THERE  have  been  countless  columns  of 
description  and  interpretation  of  the 
Ford  Hall  Meetings  in  many  news- 
papers and  magazines.  Several  leaflets  have  also 
been  published,  giving  bird's-eye  views  of  this 
work.  But  there  has  never  been  undertaken 
before  a  thoroughly  comprehensive  treatment  of 
the  subject  as  seen  from  all  its  various  angles. 
This  book  is  not  a  compilation  of  those  splendid 
studies  of  Ford  Hall  which  have  appeared  from 
time  to  time  under  various  names  and  in  many 
journals.  Such  a  collection  would  make  extremely 
interesting  reading,  for  it  would  set  forth  a  pro- 
gressive unfoldment  of  the  enterprise  as  it  ap- 
peared to  different  minds  in  varying  stages  of  its 
development. 

This  book  represents  an  entirely  fresh  study  of 
the  Ford  Hall  Meetings  and  all  that  they  imply. 
The  point  of  view  is  that  of  those  who  are  most 
familiar  with  the  work.  And  these  chapters  have 
all  been  written  at  the  same  period,  each  writer 
viewing  the  situation  in  the  light  of  seven  years 
of  uninterruptedly  successful  development. 

The  purpose  of  this  volume  is  to  give  the  facts 
about  Ford  Hall,  to  set  forth  its  spirit,  and  make 


viii  THE   EDITOR'S   EXPLANATION 

plain  its  mission,  in  the  hope  that  others  will 
undertake  the  establishment  of  similar  meetings 
elsewhere.  Nothing  has  been  omitted,  in  so  far 
as  I  could  foresee,  that  would  be  essential  in  help- 
ing any  one  to  set  up  a  similar  enterprise  in  any 
part  of  the  world.  There  is  a  wide  field  for  the 
application  of  the  Ford  Hall  principles  and  meth- 
ods wherever  there  are  populations  made  up  of 
mixed  races,  classes,  and  creeds.  There  is  quite 
as  much  need  for  such  a  work  in  Bombay  as  in 
Boston,  in  Shanghai  as  in  Chicago,  in  every  capi- 
tal of  Europe  and  in  every  center  in  the  United 
States;  in  the  smaller  places  as  well  as  in  the 
great  cities. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  word  that  would 
exactly  express  my  relation  to  this  book.  Per- 
haps the  title  of  editor  is  as  near  as  we  can  get 
to  it.  My  function  in  connection  therewith  bears 
a  very  close  analogy  to  my  service  as  director  and 
chairman  of  the  Ford  Hall  Meetings.  Although 
I  laid  out  the  contents  of  the  book  in  all  its  detail, 
named  the  chapters  and  designated  the  authors, 
and  selected  the  addresses  and  biographies,  each 
writer  has  been  a  law  unto  himself,  as  is  each 
speaker  on  the  Ford  Hall  platform.  Notwith- 
standing I  have  edited  all  the  manuscripts  and 
read  the  proofs,  I  have  not  taken  any  liberties 
with  the  thought  of  the  different  writers.  Under 
these  circumstances  the  harmony  that  prevails 
all  through  the  book  is  the  more  remarkable. 
This    inviolate    freedom    of    each    contributor    also 


THE  EDITOR'S   EXPLANATION  ix 

accounts  for  the  fact  that  the  Editor  has  not 
ehminated  the  references  to  himself  wherever 
they  occur.  The  fact  that  he  is  necessarily  a 
conspicuous  part  of  the  work  that  is  being  set 
forth  puts  him  in  an  unusual  position  as  the 
Editor  of  this  volume,  but  in  the  light  of  our 
Ford  Hall  method  each  one  must  be  left  free  to 
say  what  he  pleases. 

The  four  sections  of  the  book  tell  in  turn  how 
the  work  is  done,  what  is  thought  of  it,  who  are 
in  the  audience,  and  what  is  the  character  of  the 
addresses  delivered  there.  By  this  method  one 
can  size  up  the  whole  enterprise,  determine  its 
worth,  catch  its  inspiration,  and  duplicate  its 
machinery  anywhere.  Only  an  attendance  on  the 
meetings  themselves  could  add  anything  to  the 
impression  that  is  conveyed  in  these  various 
chapters. 

It  may  be  interesting  and  pertinent  to  note  in 
passing  that  the  Open  Forum  idea  as  developed 
at  Ford  Hall  has  come  out  of  the  heart  of  the 
church.  Although  Ford  Hall's  appeal  is  most 
largely  to  those  who  are  indifferent  or  antago- 
nistic to  conventional  religion,  and  notwithstand- 
ing it  has  no  propaganda  and  does  not  proselytize, 
it  was  conceived  and  is  supported  and  directed 
by  men  of  the  church.  Too  much  praise  cannot 
be  given  to  the  broad-minded,  big-hearted  men 
of  the  Boston  Baptist  Social  Union  who  have 
made  this  possible.  And  let  me  say  as  the  chief 
actor  in  the  enterprise  that  I  received  the  kind- 


X  THE  EDITOR'S  EXPLANATION 

liest  sympathy  and  friendliest  cooperation  from 
Doctor  Francis  E.  Clark  and  my  associates  at  the 
Christian  Endeavor  Headquarters  in  Boston,  all 
through  those  difficult  and  trying  first  years  of 
the  work.  Thus,  again,  it  was  the  men  of  the 
church  who  supplied  the  sympathetic  environ- 
ment that  made  it  possible  for  me  to  make  the 
venture. 

Although  the  enterprise  has  now  received  the 
formal  sanction  and  approval  of  the  Baptist  Social 
Union,  through  its  regularly  constituted  commit- 
tees, for  eight  successive  seasons,  let  it  not  be 
supposed  that  our  pathway  has  been  lined  with 
roses.  During  the  first  four  years  it  was  always 
a  grave  question  whether  we  would  survive  another 
season.  There  was  opposition  of  all  kinds  from 
within  and  without,  based  upon  religious,  indus- 
trial, economic,  and  personal  equations.  It  always 
seemed  as  though  nothing  short  of  an  over-ruling 
Providence  could  bring  us  through  all  our  diffi- 
culties. 

It  would  have  been  easy  enough  at  any  time 
to  have  cut  loose  from  our  religious  base  and  to 
have  established  ourselves  in  some  theater.  Pri- 
vate contributions  would  undoubtedly  have  been 
sufficient  to  maintain  the  work.  But  it  was  my 
idea  that  the  chief  significance  and  value  of  the 
Ford  Hall  Meetings  were  found  in  the  fact  that 
they  were  being  conducted  by  the  church.  And 
it  is  my  conviction  now  that  whatever  service  we 
have  rendered  to  the  people  who  have  gathered 


THE  EDITOR'S  EXPLANATION  xl 

there  Sunday  nights  for  eight  seasons,  our  chief 
contribution  has  come  from  the  reaction  of  our 
work  on  the  hfe  of  the  churches. 

And  it  must  be  readily  surmised  that  there  was 
a  struggle  going  on  in  my  own  soul  all  the  while 
this  battle  for  the  life  of  the  meetings  was  being 
so  strenuously  waged  on  the  outside.  What  should 
I  do  if  the  church  renounced  the  whole  business 
and  that  clientele  of  several  thousand  people  were 
set  adrift  once  more.''  Should  I  stay  with  the 
church  folks,  or  go  with  the  unshepherded  crowd .'^ 
I  am  thankful  that  I  was  never  obliged  to  put 
the  answer  to  that  question  into  action. 

To  my  mind,  the  crying  need  in  this  country 
is  to  get  folks  together.  There  can  be  no  hope 
of  a  real  democracy  among  people  who  do  not 
know  each  other.  The  real  solutions  to  the  grave 
problems  that  threaten  our  industrial,  political, 
social  and  economic  life  will  be  found  only  in  an 
environment  of  mutual  understanding  and  good 
will  between  the  races,  classes,  and  creeds  that 
make  up  our  common  life.  It  has  been  demon- 
strated at  Ford  Hall  beyond  peradventure  that 
the  most  violently  opposed  elements  can  win  each 
other's  respect  and  good  will,  and  thus  come  to  a 
better  understanding  of  each  other's  purpose.  If 
there  could  be  a  dozen  Ford  Halls  in  Greater 
Boston,  —  and  there  are  already  several,  —  we 
could  in  a  few  years  generate  a  new  civic  spirit 
that  would  make  possil^le  many  undertakings  for 
the    general    welfare    that    are    now    regarded    as 


xii  THE  EDITOR'S  EXPLANATION 

beyond  the  border  line  of  the  practical.  And 
with  such  meeting-places  for  all  the  people  in 
every  city  and  town  throughout  the  country, 
many  of  the  forebodings  that  are  as  a  nightmare 
to  a  lover  of  his  country  would  disappear  like 
mist  before  the  sun. 

All  this  work  in  connection  with  the  Ford  Hall 
Meetings  and  in  extending  the  Open  Forum  idea 
throughout  the  country  has  been  done  on  a  ridic- 
ulously small  financial  expenditure.  The  first 
season  we  spent  only  five  hundred  dollars,  and 
last  year  for  the  first  time  we  spent  as  much  as 
thirty-five  hundred  dollars.  This  includes  every- 
thing from  speakers'  expenses  down  to  printing 
and  postage.  Of  course  we  have  had  no  end  of 
volunteer  service.  For  eight  years  I  have  given 
my  own  services  and  paid  all  my  own  expenses. 
We  have  never  employed  even  the  full  time  of  our 
Executive  Secretary,  whose  stipend  is  exceedingly 
modest.  We  have  been  thus  cramped  because  the 
income  from  the  money  left  by  Daniel  Sharp  Ford 
to  the  Boston  Baptist  Social  Union  is  needed  in 
other  work  which  had  been  long  established  before 
our  meetings  were  ever  thought  of.  We  are  hope- 
ful, however,  of  larger  appropriations  as  the  work 
continues  to  grow. 

The  Ford  Hall  Foundation  has  been  organized 
and  incorporated  for  the  express  purpose  of  pro- 
moting the  Open  Forum  idea  throughout  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  country.  In  the  very 
nature  of  the  case,  none  of  Mr.  Ford's  money  can 


THE  EDITORS  EXPLANATION  xiii 

be  used  in  this  direction,  he  having  limited  our 
field  of  action  to  Boston  in  so  far  as  his  money  is 
concerned.  We  are  asking  for  voluntary  contri- 
butions to  sustain  this  wider  phase  of  the  work. 
The  Foundation  does  not  undertake  to  support 
Open  Forums  in  any  locality,  but  it  does  attempt 
to  assist  in  organizing  them  and  in  setting  them 
on  their  feet.  We  could  most  effectively  spend 
ten  thousand  dollars  a  year  in  this  work.  How 
easy  it  would  be  to  get  such  a  sum  were  our 
country  endangered  by  a  foreign  foe!  How  hard 
it  is  to  get  it  for  the  welfare  of  the  country  when 
the  troubles  have  not  yet  come  to  a  head!  The 
need  is  just  as  great  in  the  one  case  as  in  the 
other. 

Imagine,  for  example,  what  a  couple  of  thou- 
sand dollars  would  do  in  the  hands  of  the  Ford 
Hall  Foundation  in  putting  a  copy  of  this  book 
into  the  hands  of  just  the  right  person  in  two 
thousand  different  communities,  scattered  all  over 
the  country.  The  Open  Forum  idea  is  spreading 
fast,  anyway,  but  we  cannot  afford  to  lose  a  day's 
time  if  the  destructive  forces  of  modern  civiliza- 
tion are  not  to  overwhelm  the  constructive  agencies. 
That  is  my  greatest  fear  as  I  contemplate  our 
times,  that  we  shall  not  be  quick  enough  with  our 
new  spirit  and  better  ways.  Revolution  may  blot 
out  evolution. 

Through  our  instrumentality  an  Open  Forum 
was  established  in  a  down-town  Presbyterian 
Church    in    Buffalo,    New   York;     Rev.    John   W. 


xlv  THE  EDITOR'S  EXPLANATION 

Ross,  pastor.  Ask  any  wide-awake  citizen  there 
what  it  has  acconipHshed  in  the  two  short  seasons 
of  its  existence.  Why  not  plant  a  hundred  more 
this  coming  year,  and  again  the  year  after.'*  That 
is  the  kind  of  work  to  which  the  ten  thousand 
dolhirs  would  be  put. 

To  those  who  have  the  patience  to  study  a  list 
of  topics  and  speakers  and  the  insight  to  read 
between  the  lines,  the  most  informing  pages  of 
this  book  will  be  found  in  the  Appendix.  You 
can  read  there  in  briefest  compass  all  that  this 
book  contains  and  much  more  besides.  It  is  an 
immensely  significant  record  of  facts.  It  is  only 
exceeded  in  value  by  the  official  scrap-books  of 
the  Ford  Hall  Meetings,  which  contain  every  bit 
of  printed  matter  that  has  appeared  in  connection 
with  the  meetings  from  the  very  beginning  and 
which  of  course  can  only  be  seen  by  the  few  who 
have  the  disposition  and  the  time  to  come  to 
Boston  to  examine  them.  _ 

My  most  gracious  acknowledgments  are  due 
to  all  those  who  have  so  kindly  and  generously 
helped  in  the  preparation  of  this  volume.  Every 
contributor  has  brought  forth  his  or  her  chapter 
out  of  love  for  the  cause  and  without  money  and 
without  price.  The  royalties  from  the  book  will 
go  to  the  Ford  Hall  Foundation  and  be  used  in 
promoting  its  work. 

As  this  book  goes  forth  on  its  errand  of  blessing 
to  hundreds  of  communities,  scattered  far  and 
wide,  it  will  have  behind  it  the  hopes  and  prayers 


THE   EDITOR'S  EXPLANATION  xv 

of  a  great  congregation  of  people,  the  like  of  which 
perhaps  has  never  before  been  brought  together. 
Men  and  women  of  many  diverse  classes,  creeds, 
and  races  fervently  unite  in  wishing  for  every 
community  something  of  the  light,  leading,  and 
love  that  have  come  into  their  own  lives  through 
their  association  with  the  Ford  Hall  Sunday- 
evening  Meetings. 

GEORGE  W.  COLEMAN 

Boston,  Massachusetts, 
August  2,   1915. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Editor's  Explanation vii 

PART  I.    A  RECORD  OF  FACTS 

Introduction  to  Part  1 3 

I.  How  Ford  Hall  Came  to  be  Built.     Bij  J.  L.  Harbour. .  9 

II.  The  Story  of  the  Ford  Hall  Sunday-Evening  Meet- 

ings.    By  George  B.  Gallup 17 

III.  The    Controlling    Purpose   and   Spirit.     By    Thomas 

Dreier 26 

IV.  The  Range  op  Speakers  and  Topics.     By  James  P. 

Roberts 35 

V.     The     Method    of     Conducting    the    Meetings.     By 

Miriam  Allen  dcFord 43 

VI.     The  Town  Meeting  and  Other  Ford  Hall  Activities. 

By  William  Eorton  Foster 50 

VII.     The  Open  Forum  Movement.     By  Harold  Marshall 66 

VIII.     One  OF  Boston's  Institutions.     By  A.  J.  Phil-pott 74 

IX.     An  Actual  Melting  Pot.    By  Rolfe  Cobleigh 79 

X.     Dramatic  Incidents.     By  Mary  Caroline  Crawford 84 

XI.     The  Struggle  for  Devotional  Expression.     By  George 

TV.  Coleman 95 

PART  II.     A  REGISTER  OF  JUDGMENTS 

Introduction  to  Part  II 107 

I.     By  a  Man  of  the  Church.     Walter  Rauschenbuseh 112 

II.  By  a  Catholic  Priest.     John  A.  Ryan 118 

III.  By  A  Rabbi.     Stephen  S.  Wise 124 

IV.  By  a  Popular  Lecturer.     Charles  Zueblin 129 

V.     By  a  Social  Mystic.     Stanton  Coit 134 

VI.     By  a  Cosmopolitan.      Edward  A.  Steiner 138 

VII.    By  a  College  President.     William  H.  P.  Faunce 141 


xvlli  CONTENTS 


PART  III.    A  ROLL  OF  PERSONALITIES 

SIXTEEN  TYPICAL  FORD  HALL  FOLKS 

By  Mary  Caroline  Crawford 

Introduction  to  Part  III 149 

I.     An  Involuntary  Philanthropist.  —  MRS.  eva  Hoffman.  .  .  .  153 

II.     A  Man  who  Writes  Letters.  —  Alfred  willlams 157 

III.  A  Virile  Young  Jew.  —  samuel  sackmary 161 

IV.  A  Fine  Irish  Couple.  —  mr.  and  mrs.  john  j.  sullivan  . . .  164 
V.     A  Journalist  in  the  Germ.  —  philip  everett  sage 167 

VI.     A  Typical  Mother.  —  mrs.  l.  e.  blanchard 170 

VII.     A  Red-Hot  Socialist.  —  martin  Jordan 173 

VIII.     A  Man  who  Found  Himself.  —  clarence  w.  marple 175 

IX.     A  Warm-Hearted  Unbeliever.  —  michael  rush 179 

X.     A  Lover  of  Flowers  and  Children.  —  mrs.  nellie  mclean 

atwood 182 

XI.     A  Street  Preacher.  —  d.  w.  carty 185 

XII.     A  Thinker  who  Walks  in  Darkness.  —  Joseph  cosgrove  .  .  189 

XIII.  A  Ford  Hall  Product.  —  freda  rogolsky 192 

XIV.  A  Distinguished  Colored  Lawyer.  —  butler  r.  wilson  . . .  195 
XV.     A  Youth  who  Began  as  a  Newsboy.  —  jacob  London 199 

XVI.     An  Idealistic  Business  Man.  —  george  b.  gallup 204 


PART  IV.    A  REVIEW  OF  ADDRESSES 

six  typical  ford  hall  talks 

Introduction  to  Part  IV 209 

I.  The  Religion  of  the  Crowd.  An  Address  Delivered  at 
the  Ford  Hall  Meeting,  April  11,  1909,  by  George  W. 
Coleman,  of  Boston,  Massachusetts 214 

II.  The  Menace  of  Socialism.  An  Address  Delivered  at 
the  Ford  Hall  Meetmg,  February  5,  1911,  by 
Reverend  Thomas  I.  Gasson,  S.J.,  President  of 
Boston  College 235 

III.  The  Modern  Drama  as  a  Socla.l  Force.  An  Address 
Delivered  at  the  Ford  Hall  Meeting,  December  7, 
1913,  by  Norman  Hapgood,  of  New  York 248 


CONTENTS  xix 

rV.  God  and  Democracy.  An  Address  Delivered  at  the  Ford 
Hall  Meeting,  December  29,  1913,  by  Professor  Charles 
Prospero  Fagnani,  D.D.,  of  Union  Theological  Semi- 
nary, New  York 259 

V.  The  Search  After  God.  An  Address  Delivered  at  the 
Ford  Hall  Meeting,  January  3,  1915,  by  Reverend 
George  A.  Gordon,  D.D.,  of  Boston,  Massachusetts  . .     273 

VI.  From  Absolute  Monarchy  to  Pure  Democracy  in 
Industry.  An  Address  Delivered  at  the  Ford  Hall 
Meeting,  January  17,  1915,  by  Reverend  John  Haynes 
Hohnes,  of  New  York 290 

Appendix ^*1 

Index ^^^ 


PART    I 
A  RECORD  OF  FACTS 


DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 


INTRODUCTION  TO  PART  I 

THE  authors  of  the  following  chapters  are 
all  eye-witnesses  to  the  facts  they  record. 
Each  one  of  them  has  been  very  close  to 
the  Ford  Hall  enterprise,  several  of  them  almost 
from  the  beginning.  Taken  all  together,  this 
portrayal  of  facts  gives  a  fairly  complete  history 
of  the  undertaking  during  its  first  seven  years:  it 
describes  the  mechanism  by  which  results  are 
obtained,  and  discloses  the  modus  operandi  through- 
out. One  chapter  tells  how  the  success  of  the  meet- 
ings in  Ford  Hall  has  stimulated  the  desire  to  go 
and  do  likewise  in  other  cities  and  towns  near  and 
far.  Seven  of  the  chapters  take  up  specific  details, 
while  four  treat  of  the  work  more  in  the  large. 

The  story  of  Mr.  Ford's  life  and  bequests  is 
written  by  one  who  was  closely  associated  with 
him  for  years  as  an  editor  on  The  Youth's  Com- 
panion. Mr.  Harbour  is  also  a  member  of  the 
committee  of  the  Boston  Baptist  Social  Union  that 
has  the  work  in  charge  and  has  been  a  frequent 
attendant  at  the  meetings  for  years.  Few  could 
speak  more  authoritatively  than  he  of  Mr.  Ford's 
spirit  and  purpose. 


4  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

Perhaps  more  than  any  other  man,  not  excepting 
myself,  Mr.  George  B.  Gallup,  from  the  very 
beginning,  grasped  the  significance  of  what  we  were 
trying  to  do  and  prophesied  its  certain  success 
and  far-reaching  influence.  He  was  of  the  greatest 
comfort  to  me  all  through  the  period  of  initiation 
and  the  struggle  to  survive,  never  failing  to  hold 
up  my  hands  in  generous  and  enthusiastic  support 
against  all  criticism.  No  one  could  better  tell  our 
story  than  he. 

It  is  not  so  easy  to  put  down  in  black  and  white 
the  spirit  and  purpose  of  any  institution.  With  us 
it  is  the  more  difficult  because  such  simple  things 
have  led  to  such  large  results.  The  secret  of  it 
all  is  the  more  elusive,  the  harder  you  seek  to  find 
it.  Unless  you  see  it  almost  by  intuition,  you  are 
more  than  likely  to  miss  it  altogether.  Mr.  Thomas 
Dreier,  who  has  been  very  close  to  me  at  Ford  Hall 
and  who  edits  our  weekly  magazine.  Ford  Hall 
Folks,  has  a  rare  gift  for  getting  at  the  spiritual 
heart  of  a  thing  and  a  ready  facility  in  telling  others 
what  he  sees. 

As  a  young  attorney  and  member  of  the  official 
committee,  Mr.  James  P.  Roberts  has  fought  and 
helped  to  win  a  number  of  Ford  Hall's  battles. 
His  analysis  of  our  speakers  and  subjects  for  eight 
successive  seasons  is  particularly  illuminating.  As 
head  usher  for  several  seasons,  he  has  been  in  the 
closest  contact  with  the  meetings. 

Mrs.  Miriam  deFord  Collier  has  the  gift  of 
making  an  interesting  story  out  of  the  most  un- 


INTRODUCTION  5 

promising  literary  material,  as  is  well  illustrated  in 
her  account  of  how  the  meetings  are  conducted. 
She  was  official  stenographer  of  the  Sunday  evening 
meetings  and  Clerk  of  the  Town  Meeting  during 
the  all  too  few  seasons  that  she  was  with  us.  She 
never  could  find  language  strong  enough  to  express 
her  devotion  to  Ford  Hall. 

As  fast  as  new  workers  are  needed  for  Ford 
Hall's  expanding  activities,  they  seem  to  drop  down 
from  the  clouds  as  though  they  were  made  to  order 
to  fit  the  emergency.  Mr.  William  Horton  Foster 
came  upon  the  scene  at  the  close  of  our  1912-1913 
season,  just  in  time  to  take  the  leadership  of  our 
newly  developed  Town  Meeting,  which  he  has 
served  as  Moderator  through  two  seasons.  Both 
he  and  Mrs,  Foster  have  been  immensely  helpful 
in  other  of  our  activities  as  well.  As  a  lawyer, 
trained  writer,  and  social  worker,  Mr.  Foster  has 
been  well  equipped  for  the  varied  work  he  has  done 
on  our  behalf. 

Nothing  outside  of  the  Ford  Hall  Meetings  them- 
selves has  encouraged  us  more  in  feeling  that  we 
were  on  the  right  track  than  the  remarkable  success 
achieved  by  Reverend  Harold  Marshall  with  the 
Melrose  Community  Forum  in  a  near-by  suburb 
of  Boston.  That  our  principles  and  methods  could 
inspire  and  guide  such  an  accomplishment  as  this 
gave  us  courage  to  believe  that  there  was  power  and 
adaptability  enough  in  the  Ford  Hall  ideas  to 
make  a  wide  transplanting  of  them  possible.  No 
one  has  worked  more  devotedly  to  that  end,  or  is 


6  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE   MAKING 

better  entitled  to  tell  of  the  results  already  accom- 
plished, than  Mr.  Marshall. 

The  one  force  that  saved  our  enterprise  from  an 
early  death  was  publicity.  Not  only  did  it  save 
it  from  languishing  from  inattention,  but  it  also 
protected  it  from  those  who  would  have  destroyed 
it  because  they  could  not  understand.  The  power 
of  public  opinion  generated  by  fair  and  generous 
press  reports  saved  the  day  at  more  than  one  criti- 
cal juncture.  Here,  again,  a  kind  Providence  sent 
along  just  the  right  man  at  the  right  time,  Mr.  A.  J. 
Philpott,  of  the  Boston  Globe.  His  insight,  his 
sympathy,  his  faith,  led  him  straight  to  the  core 
of  this  new  kind  of  meeting,  and  his  ability  and 
reputation  made  it  easy  for  others  to  follow  where 
he  led.  His  chapter  is  a  vital  contribution  in  help- 
ing others  who  venture  on  a  similar  work  to  find 
their  way. 

And  the  religious  press  were  not  one  whit  behind 
the  secular  press  in  giving  fair  chronicles  of  our 
doings.  Next  to  The  Watchman  (now  The  Watch- 
man-Examiner), a  Baptist  weekly,  The  Congre- 
gationalist  has  been  our  sturdiest  defender  and 
friend.  In  more  recent  years,  Mr.  Rolfe  Cobleigh 
has  represented  that  journal  in  its  relation  to  Ford 
Hall,  and  he  has  never  lost  an  opportunity  to  help 
us  to  be  understood  among  church  people. 

Miss  Mary  C.  Crawford,  who  writes  the  stirring 
chapter  of  "Dramatic  Incidents",  has  been  the 
Executive  Secretary  of  the  Ford  Hall  Meetings 
ever  since  the  beginning  of  the  second  season.    Her 


INTRODUCTION  7 

labors  have  often  been  prodigious  and  always 
exceedingly  efiFective.  For  six  seasons  she  was  the 
only  salaried  worker,  and  it  was  only  a  portion 
of  her  time  that  we  could  afford  to  employ.  She 
brought  to  the  work  a  college  training,  special 
instruction  in  social  questions,  unusual  gifts  as  an 
author,  thorough  knowledge  of  the  ways  of  the 
press,  experience  in  trade  unions,  and  a  fine  Chris- 
tian character  that  took  into  consideration  the 
struggling  masses  of  the  people.  A  very  consid- 
erable share  of  our  success  is  due  to  her  untiring 
energy,  marked  ability,  and  supreme  devotion. 

The  chapter  telling  of  "The  Struggle  for  Devo- 
tional Expression"  deals  with  a  vital  factor  in  our 
work.  It  is  an  element  in  the  story  that  might 
easily  escape  analysis  or  fail  of  receiving  its  due 
weight.  Twice  the  life  of  the  meetings  hinged  upon 
this  matter,  —  once  because  I  refused  to  introduce 
the  customary  church  devotions,  and  once  because 
I  insisted  on  introducing  some  form  of  devotional 
expression  in  spite  of  the  doubts  and  anxieties  of 
my  friends  in  the  audience. 

These  eleven  chapters  give  a  sufficiently  detailed 

account  of  the  open  forum  idea,  as  practiced  at 

Ford  Hall,  to  enable  any  one  in  any  part  of  the 

world  to  initiate  a  similar  work  without  any  further 

assistance.     The   remaining   portions    of   the   book 

simply  throw  added  light  on  what  is  contained  in 

this  first  part. 

G.  w.  c. 


CHAPTER  I 

HOW  FORD  HALL  CAME  TO  BE  BUILT 

By  J.  L.  Harbour 

BORN  in  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  in  the 
year  1822,  Daniel  Sharp  Ford  was  well 
born  in  that  his  parents  were  possessed  of 
all  the  strong  traits  of  Christian  character  that 
later  developed  in  their  son.  His  father,  Thomas 
Ford,  was  a  native  of  Coventry,  England.  He 
came  to  Cambridge  in  the  year  1800,  where  he  at 
once  became  an  influence  for  good  by  reason  of  his 
unusual  gifts  as  a  public  speaker  and  his  interest 
in  the  poor  and  unfortunate.  He  died  when  his 
son  Daniel  was  but  six  months  old,  leaving  his 
widow  with  six  children  and  very  limited  means. 
Mrs.  Ford  declined  all  offers  of  assistance  that 
involved  the  separation  of  her  children,  and  thus  it 
was  that  Mr.  Ford,  the  multi-millionaire,  knew  in 
his  own  early  life  experience  how  sharp  the  battle 
with  poverty  may  be.  It  was  this  knowledge  that 
made  him  so  sympathetic  with  the  poor  and  the 
needy  in  the  days  of  his  large  wealth.  To  serve 
his  day  and  generation  well  and  to  create  lasting 
influences  for  good  were  the  dominant  desires  in 
his  life.  No  man  cared  less  for  social  pleasures  and 
position,  for  worldly  honor  and  glory.  No  trait 
in  his  character  was  more  marked  than  his  extreme 


10  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE   MAKING 

modesty,  his  positive  aversion  to  publicity.  So  far 
as  was  possible,  his  gifts  to  charity  and  to  all  good 
causes  were  given  in  secret.  He  was  known  per- 
sonally to  few  men,  and  it  is  doubtful  if  any  phi- 
lanthropist giving  away  the  large  sums  Mr.  Ford 
gave  so  rarely  saw  his  name  in  print.  Interviewers 
were  never  able  to  see  him,  and  he  put  the  ban  on 
all  mention  of  his  name  in  print.  On  the  rare 
occasions  when  he  sat  for  his  photograph,  he  pur- 
chased the  negatives  that  no  picture  of  himself 
should  appear  in  any  paper  or  magazine.  His 
business  was  established  and  carried  forward  on 
Christian  principles.  The  several  hundred  em- 
ployees of  his  paper,  the  Youth's  Companion,  found 
in  him  a  most  generous  and  considerate  employer, 
who  took  a  personal  interest  in  all  who  worked  for 
him.  When  sickness  or  sorrow  or  misfortune  over- 
took them,  Mr.  Ford  was  the  first  to  lend  a  helping 
hand.  While  he  was  proud  of  the  high  literary 
excellence  of  his  paper,  he  wanted  it  to  be  above 
all  else  a  distinct  moral  and  spiritual  force.  He 
sought  through  the  medium  of  the  Youth's  Com- 
panion and  his  church,  to  which  he  gave  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  dollars,  to  create  influences  for 
good  that  would  never  die.  He  had  unbounded 
and  unwavering  faith  in  the  principles  of  Jesus 
and  sought  to  direct  his  life  by  those  principles. 

It  would  be  impossible  for  any  one  to  give  any- 
thing like  a  detailed  account  of  the  charities  and 
benevolences  of  Mr.  Ford,  for  they  were  known 
only  to  himself.  From  the  time  that  he  first  began 
as  a  poor  boy  to  earn  money  up  to  the  day  of  his 


HOW  FORD  HALL  WAS  BUILT  11 

death,  he  regarded  it  as  a  duty  and  privilege  to 
give  a  part  of  his  income  to  others.  His  personal 
expenditure  was  infinitely  smaller  than  that  of 
most  men  of  large  wealth.  Luxurious  life  made  no 
appeal  to  him,  and  he  deplored  the  foolish  extrava- 
gance of  the  wealthy.  He  practiced  many  small 
economies  that  he  might  have  more  to  give  to 
others.  His  will  affords  documentary  proof  of  his 
generosity.  No  other  will  like  it  was  ever  probated 
in  Boston.  Of  an  estate  amounting  to  more  than 
three  million  three  hundred  thousand  dollars  all  was 
given  to  religious  and  charitable  organizations,  with 
the  exception  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dol- 
lars, given  outright  to  his  daughter,  Mrs.  William  N. 
Hartshorn,  of  whom  it  should  be  said  that  she  was 
in  perfect  harmony  with  her  father  in  all  of  his 
thought  and  work  and  was  entirely  satisfied  with 
the  provision  he  had  made  for  her.  The  greater 
part  of  her  own  income  after  the  death  of  her  father 
was  devoted  to  charitable  and  religious  work,  and 
a  large  part  of  her  estate  was  willed  to  educational 
institutions  putting  marked  emphasis  on  the  devel- 
opment of  Christian  character. 

Nothing  having  to  do  with  the  welfare  of  the 
Nation  gave  Mr.  Ford  more  anxiety  than  the  unrest 
among  the  working  classes  and  the  possibility  of 
industrial  warfare.  How  much  this  was  on  his 
mind  and  heart  may  be  known  from  the  following 
extract  from  his  will: 

"The  need  that  Christian  business  men  should 
come  into  closer  personal  relations  with  the  work- 
ingman    at    this    time    seems    to    be    imperative, 


n  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

because  of  his  religious  indifference,  his  feverish 
unrest,  and  his  behef  that  business  men  and  capital 
are  his  enemies.  The  attitude  of  his  mind,  and  his 
tendencies  forebode  serious  perils,  and  Christianity  is 
the  only  influence  that  can  change  or  modify  them." 
In  many  ways  Mr.  Ford  gave  proof  of  the  fact 
that  he  was  a  man  of  unusual  breadth  for  his  time. 
He  had  great  acuteness  of  perception  and  saw 
things  in  the  light  of  a  man  deeply  interested  in 
the  common  good  of  humanity.  His  sympathy 
with  the  workingman,  with  that  large  class  called 
the  common  people,  was  great,  and  one  cannot 
read  his  will  without  discovering  how  near  to  his 
heart  this  part  of  the  people  was.  When  he  left 
three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  to  the 
Boston  Baptist  Social  Union,  it  was  with  the  hope 
that  the  building  to  be  erected  as  a  home  for  the 
Union  would  be  a  center  from  which  there  would 
go  forth  influences  for  the  betterment  of  mankind 
in  general.  Mr.  Ford  was  too  broad  and  generous 
a  man  to  care  to  limit  his  helpfulness  by  any  denom- 
inational lines,  and  it  is  certain  that  he  did  not 
want  the  Baptist  Social  Union  to  be  hampered  by 
such  lines  in  the  increased  opportunities  for  service 
his  large  bequest  gave.  The  Boston  Baptist  Social 
Union  is  composed  of  three  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  Baptist  laymen,  only  laymen  being  eligible  to 
membership.  Mr.  Ford  was  a  constituent  member 
of  this  Union  more  than  half  a  century  ago,  and  it 
claimed  much  of  his  thought  and  interest.  It  was 
always  his  feeling  that  it  should  be  a  great  com- 
munity force.     Organized  primarily  for  social  pur- 


HOW  FORD  HALL  WAS  BUILT  13 

poses,  Mr.  Ford  felt  as  it  grew  in  membership  that 
it  should  be  more  than  a  mere  social  organization. 
It  is  certain  that  he  had  this  thought  in  mind  when 
he  left  the  Union  more  than  a  third  of  a  million  of 
dollars  for  a  building.  It  is  equally  certain  that 
he  had  the  working  people  of  the  city  in  mind  when 
he  made  this  bequest.  This  was  one  reason  why 
the  location  of  the  building  became  a  matter  of 
such  serious  concern  to  the  Union.  Many  sites 
were  suggested  before  one  could  be  chosen  that  met 
with  the  approval  of  the  Union.  Mr.  Ford  had 
stated  in  his  will  that  the  building  should  be  "as 
near  as  practicable  to  the  center  of  business,  or 
what  is  inferred  may  be  in  the  immediate  future 
the  center  of  business  in  the  city  of  Boston."  He 
had  said  further  in  his  will : 

"It  is  my  hope  that  in  this  trust  there  will  be 
found  an  open  field  for  the  fullest  exhibition  of  its 
principles  by  the  active,  successful  business  men  of 
the  Social  Union.  This  may  be  done  by  its  com- 
mittees; by  the  personal  interest  of  its  members  in 
the  workingmen,  and  in  sympathetic  intercourse, 
in  friendly  association,  and  in  helpful  acts,  and 
through  all  and  above  all,  in  seeking  to  bring  them 
to  accept  Christ  and  Christ's  teachings  as  the  guide 
of  their  life." 

One  cannot  read  the  will  of  Mr.  Ford  without 
being  impressed  by  the  fact  that  it  was  his  intention 
that  all  classes  and  conditions  of  men  without 
regard  to  race,  color,  or  creed  should  in  some  way 
profit  by  his  benefactions.  To  do  the  greatest  good 
to  the  greatest  number  was  always  his  desire,  and 


14  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  IVIAKING 

it  could  not  have  been  other  than  a  great  gratifi- 
cation to  him  that  the  Ruggles  Street  Baptist 
Church  in  which  he  spent  the  most  active  years  of 
his  Hfe  and  to  which  he  gave  such  large  sums,  was 
a  center  from  which  there  went  forth  an  influence 
for  good  that  was  felt  throughout  all  Boston.  More 
than  this,  hundreds  of  persons  engaged  in  all  forms 
of  Christian  work  visited  this  church  and  went 
away  to  introduce  some  of  its  methods  into  other 
fields  in  all  parts  of  the  country.  To  this  distinc- 
tively Christian  religious  work,  Mr.  Ford  added  the 
building  that  now  bears  his  name  in  Ashburton 
Place,  and  it  is  certain  that  it  was  his  hope  that 
there  should  go  forth  from  this  building  a  still 
more  far-reaching  work  that  should  not  be  strictly 
denominational . 

Not  only  in  his  will  but  in  many  letters  written 
to  those  nearest  to  him  in  his  work  did  Mr.  Ford 
set  forth  his  wishes  in  regard  to  the  general  good 
that  might  result  from  his  benefactions.  Many  of 
these  letters  are  in  existence,  and  they  set  forth  in 
the  most  convincing  way  Mr.  Ford's  general  plan 
and  purpose  for  the  continuance  of  his  work  after 
his  death.  One  has  only  to  read  some  of  these 
letters  to  know  that  his  sympathies  knew  no  denom- 
inational bounds,  and  that  he  had  great  respect  for 
the  sincere  convictions  of  others.  Many  of  those 
who  knew  him  best,  including  some  of  those  who 
have  been  members  of  his  own  household,  feel  sure 
that  he  would  have  been  in  full  sympathy  with  the 
whole  plan  and  purpose  of  the  Ford  Hall  Meetings. 


HOW  FORD  HALL  WAS  BUILT  15 

In  the  vestibule  of  the  Ford  Building  are  two 
tablets  well  worthy  the  consideration  of  those  who 
might  care  to  make  a  study  of  the  life  and  character 
of  this  remarkable  man.  These  tablets  are  on 
either  side  of  the  main  entrance  doors  of  Ford  Hall. 
On  one  we  read  the  following  inscription: 


THIS  TABLET 

IS  PLACED   HERE 

IN  GRATEFUL  MEMORY 

OF 

DANIEL    SHARP    FORD 

A  CITIZEN  OF  BOSTON 

APRIL  5,  1822 

DECEMBER   24,   1899 


UNDER  THE  PROVISIONS  OF  HIS  WILL 

THIS  BUILDING  IS  ERECTED 

"FOR  THE  USE  OF 

THE  BOSTON  BAPTIST  SOCIAL  UNION 

AND  FOR  SUCH  SOCIAL  OR 

BUSINESS  PURPOSES  AND 

FOR  SUCH  RELIGIOUS 

CHARITABLE  OR  BENEVOLENT  WORK 

AS  THE  UNION   MAY  DESIRE  TO 

SERVE  PROMOTE  OR 

CARRY  ON." 


THE  CORNER  STONE  WAS  LAID 

APRIL  19,   1905 

THE  BUILDING  WAS  COMPLETED 

DECEMBER,   1905. 


16  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

And  on  the  other  this: 


THE  WILL 
OF 

DANIEL   SHARP    FORD 

MAKES  THE  FOLLOWING  PROVISION: 

"IN  THE  HOPE  THAT  THIS 

NEEDED   WORK 

FOR  THE  SPIRITUAL 

AND  TEMPORAL  BENEFIT  OF 

WORKINGMEN  AND  THEIR  FAMILIES 

MAY  BE  PROSPERED  BY  GOD'S  BLESSING 

I  LEAVE  TO  SAID 

BOSTON  BAPTIST  SOCIAL  UNION 

ITS  FULL  CONTROL 
IT  BEING  MY  DESIRE  AND   HOPE 

THAT  THESE  GIFTS  AND 

THE  GREAT  AND  FAR-REACHING 

RESPONSIBILITIES  THEY  INVOLVE 

MAY  STIMULATE  THE  RELIGIOUS 

INTEREST  OF  ITS  MEMBERS 

IN  THE  WELFARE  OF  THOSE 

WHO  ARE  DEPENDENT 

ON  THE  RETURNS 

FROM  THEIR  DAILY  TOIL 

FOR  THEIR  LIVELIHOOD 

AND  IN  PROMOTING 

SUCH  WELFARE  THROUGH 

DISTINCTLY  CHRISTIAN  AGENCIES." 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  STORY  OF  THE  FORD  HALL  SUNDAY- 
EVENING  MEETINGS 

By  George  B.  Gallup 

IT  is  not  difficult  to  describe  Ford  Hall.  Many 
have  written  about  it.  Newspaper  and  maga- 
zine writers  of  ability  and  prominence  have 
pictured  in  brilliant  phrases  the  picturesque  and 
striking  features  of  this  wonderful  undertaking. 
It  has  engaged  the  attention  of  famous  speakers, 
and  has  been  praised  by  many  religious  leaders  and 
damned  by  a  few. 

Nevertheless  it  still  remains  a  difficult  if  not  an 
impossible  task  to  tell  the  true  story  of  Ford  Hall, 
not  merely  as  it  really  seems  to  most  observant 
eye  witnesses,  but  as  it  exists  potentially.  It  is 
a  phenomenal  social  creation  which  deceives  even 
penetrating  and  experienced  critics,  because  of  its 
apparent  simplicitj^  and  seeming  likeness  to  many 
familiar  types  of  public  meetings. 

The  cataloguing  of  the  events,  chronologically, 
in  the  development  of  the  story  is  necessary  to  a 
proper  comprehension  of  the  series  of  open  forum 
meetings,  known  widely  by  the  familiar  title  of 
Ford  Hall,  and  this  has  been  done  in  many  chapters 


18  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

in  great  detail  with  a  variety  of  comment  and 
illuminating  side  lights. 

But  the  real  story  of  Ford  Hall  must  be  dis- 
covered in  the  unfolding  of  a  great  social  ideal  in 
the  mind  of  one  man,  George  W.  Coleman.  This 
ideal  had  its  inception  far  back  of  the  time  which 
marks  with  a  white  stone  in  the  history  of  Boston 
the  actual  beginning  of  the  meetings. 

This  ideal  was  the  result  of  personal  experiences, 
most  of  them  very  natural  and  human,  such  as 
come  to  a  multitude  of  men,  but  a  few  of  them 
extraordinary  —  such  as  only  seem  to  attend  the 
careers  of  persons  born  to  a  striking  destiny. 

George  W.  Coleman  in  early  manhood  deter- 
mined upon  a  newspaper  adventure  in  South 
America.  The  sailing  vessel  cargoed  with  lumber 
which  bore  him  south  on  the  Atlantic  was  wrecked 
in  a  terrific  gale  and  he  barely  escaped  death. 

Unwilling  to  bargain  even  mentally  for  his  life, 
he  nevertheless,  being  saved,  vowed  to  dedicate 
himself  to  humanity. 

Coming  thus  inevitably  out  of  a  period  of  almost 
complete  agnosticism  he  set  himself  to  discover  the 
ways  of  supreme  social  usefulness.  He  grew  grad- 
ually into  great  prominence  in  church  work  and  in 
the  society  of  Christian  Endeavor,  learning  the 
detail  of  organization  in  conventions  and  denomi- 
national meetings  of  the  Baptist  Church  with 
which  he  affiliated. 

Spending  several  summer  vacation  periods  work- 
ing as   an   apprentice  in  his  father's   bookbinding 


THE  SUNDAY-EVENING  MEETINGS        19 

shop,  he  saw  labor  in  its  mechanical  rigidity  of 
barren  repetition  —  movements  without  soul  in 
ceaseless  duplication,  producing  the  commonplace 
cheaply,  without  joy  or  enduring  merit  for  the 
worker. 

Gradually  there  dawned  in  this  man's  con- 
sciousness a  perception  of  a  larger  unity  of  purpose 
and  usefulness  in  the  world  of  men,  women  and 
children  about  him. 

His  vantage  in  life  increased  and  he  knit  him- 
self into  the  structure  of  organized  religious  acti- 
vities in  many  directions  becoming  at  length 
fortuitously  the  Chairman  of  the  Christian  Work 
Committee  of  the  Boston  Baptist  Social  Union. 

Daniel  Sharp  Ford  had  prevision  in  his  will 
leaving  that  great  endowment  to  the  Baptist  Social 
Union.  He  felt  that  the  social  crisis  was  ahead 
and  planned  for  a  reconciliation  between  labor  and 
capital. 

This  in  its  deepest  significance  and  largest  inter- 
pretation escaping  all  but  Coleman,  gave  him  a 
clue  to  his  opportunity. 

The  years  1907-1908,  panic  years,  full  of  unim- 
aginable distress  to  workers,  with  money  losses 
widespread  even  among  the  middle  classes  and  the 
hitherto  wealthy,  followed  close  after  the  completion 
of  the  Ford  Building.  At  the  time  of  the  dedica- 
tion of  the  beautiful  hall,  in  that  quarter  of  the  city 
on  Beacon  Hill,  it  seemed  likely  that  it  would  be 
unoccupied  a  greater  part  of  the  time. 

Returning  from  a  southern  trip,  just  after  he  had 


20  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE   MAKING 

been  elected  President  of  the  Baptist  Social  Union, 
Mr.  Coleman  stopped  off  in  New  York  one  Sunday 
evening  and  attended  a  meeting  at  Cooper  Union. 

Charles  Spragiie  Smith  was  then  making  an  ever 
widening  reputation  for  these  meetings,  which  were 
of  a  new  type  in  America. 

At  this  meeting,  Mr.  Coleman  heard  Professor 
Charles  Fagnani,  of  Union  Theological  Seminary, 
speak  to  a  great  audience  of  people  of  many  va- 
rieties, in  a  manner  that  affected  him  deeply.  The 
questions  that  followed  from  members  of  the  audi- 
ence and  were  answered  by  the  speaker  showed 
the  hunger  of  the  masses  for  truth. 

Mr.  Coleman  returned  to  Boston,  and  began  to 
labor  with  his  Committee  to  permit  the  holding  of 
meetings  on  a  similar  plan  in  the  new  Ford  Hall. 
He  had  a  difficult  task  in  winning  his  associates  to 
his  view-point.  Succeeding  at  length  in  securing 
an  appropriation  of  a  few  hundred  dollars  for  the 
purpose,  he  carried  out  a  very  thorough  advertising 
campaign  to  reach  the  people  he  wished  to  attract. 

Handbills  in  several  languages,  display  adver- 
tisements in  the  dramatic  columns  of  the  Boston 
daily  newspapers,  posters,  every  device  known  to 
an  experienced  advertising  man  was  adopted  in 
order  if  possible  to  fill  the  hall  on  that  memorable 
opening  night,  Feb.  23,  1908  —  two  years  after 
Mr.  Coleman's  visit  to  the  Cooper  Union  meetings 
in  New  York. 

The  story  has  been  told  so  often  that  it  does  not 
need   repetition   in  detail.     Of  how  but  one  hun- 


THE  SUNDAY-EVENING  MEETINGS        21 

dred  and  fifty  came;  how  for  the  six  meetings  of 
that  first  season's  series  the  average  attendance 
was  only  three  hundred  and  fifty  and  only  on  one 
night  reached  five  hundred. 

Begun  under  the  auspices  of  the  Baptist  denomi- 
nation, the  working  people  and  especially  those  of 
foreign  birth  were  very  sceptical,  believing  appar- 
ently some  subtle  device  was  planned  for  proselyt- 
ing the  unwary. 

It  was  only  with  the  fourth  meeting  of  the  second 
year's  series,  that  suspicion  was  fully  disarmed. 
Four  clergymen  of  four  different  denominations,  all 
but  one  frankly  socialistic,  were  advertised  to  speak 
on  socialism,  and  not  only  was  the  hall  packed,  but 
fifteen  hundred  people  were  turned  away. 

It  was  a  much  longer  and  more  diflScult  task 
convincing  the  church  people,  and  the  members  of 
the  Baptist  Social  Union,  very  many  of  them  busi- 
ness men  of  large  affairs,  that  these  meetings  served 
a  useful  purpose.  But  this  part  of  the  story  also 
has  been  told. 

The  winning  of  the  audience  as  well  as  the  con- 
verting of  his  associates  to  the  validity  of  the 
experiment  is  all  a  part  of  the  irresistible  idea 
gradually  unfolding  in  the  mind  of  the  founder  of 
the  meetings. 

Essentially  the  plan  of  the  meetings  was  different 
from  other  meetings,  even  those  at  Cooper  Union, 
though  externally  they  must  seem  to  many  as  quite 
like  meetings  held  from  time  immemorial  at  which 
a  speaker  proclaims  his  theory,  and  there  is  inci- 


22  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

dental  music  with  some  opportunity  for  questioning 
on  the  part  of  the  audience. 

But  in  reahty,  there  was  a  deep  difference  which 
consisted  in  the  quaHty  of  the  purpose  in  the  mind 
of  the  presiding  officer.  This  purpose  was  to 
provide  for  absolute  freedom  of  presentation  of 
the  most  important  subjects  represented  in  every 
school  of  thought  by  the  ablest  men  and  women  to 
be  secured  in  this  or  other  countries.  No  discrim- 
ination was  to  be  permitted  on  account  of  popular 
prejudice. 

The  jury  system  in  a  new  application  to  com- 
munity life  was  to  be  tried  out  in  an  hour  of 
questioning  the  speaker  by  members  of  the  audience. 
This  also  was  conducted  in  a  manner  of  strict 
impartiality  by  beginning  with  one  section  of  the 
audience  and  giving  every  person,  as  section  by 
section  was  called,  opportunity  to  put  at  least  one 
question,  which  was  repeated  by  the  Chairman  for 
the  purpose  of  phrasing  it  clearly  and  accurately 
to  the  complete  understanding  of  all  the  people. 
The  speaker  thus  interrogated  and  cross-examined 
was  put  upon  his  mettle  to  make  clear  every  point 
advanced  that  might  be  open  to  criticism. 

Other  meetings  have  been  common  enough  where 
persons  in  the  audience  are  permitted  to  debate  the 
subject  discussed  by  the  appointed  speaker,  who 
is  given  finally  opportunity  to  reply  and  defend 
his  presentation  against  all  comers.  But  the  Ford 
Hall  method,  though  similar  in  general  conduct  to 
the   Cooper   Union    meetings,   yet    differed   in   the 


THE  SUNDAY-EVENING  MEETINGS        23 

spirit  of  the  Chairman.  He  had  the  utmost  con- 
sideration for  every  person  in  the  audience  who 
desired  to  have  further  Hght,  no  matter  how  imper- 
fect and  broken  the  question  presented  might  ap- 
pear to  an  impatient  or  intolerant  presiding  officer. 

Again  it  is  very  difficult  to  show  how  the  spirit 
of  these  meetings  depends  so  largely  upon  the  idea 
of  the  Chairman  and  his  conception  of  the  purpose 
he  aims  to  accomplish,  where  the  mechanism  is  so 
similar  to  other  open  forum  meetings. 

But  the  difference  is  important,  and  the  tech- 
nique, as  established  by  George  W.  Coleman  prac- 
tically unchanged  and  not  materially  modified  since 
the  beginning,  marks  these  Ford  Hall  meetings  as 
of  a  subtle  quality.  They  are  unprecedented  in  the 
history  of  progress  toward  the  ideal  of  personal 
freedom  facilitated  by  a  perfected  method  of  free 
speech. 

Like  all  great  inventions,  this  one  is  characterized 
by  its  absolute  simplicity.  In  the  language  of  the 
Patent  Office,  which  defines  all  alleged  new  ideas 
filed  for  protection  as  "improvements"  so  the  Ford 
Hall  idea  must  be  described  as  an  improvement 
over  other  open  forum  meetings,  even  if  it  is  not 
strictly  speaking  a  new  invention  in  the  plane  of 
democratic  communal  expression,  and  differs  ap- 
parently only  in  slight  detail  from  other  meetings 
of  a  somewhat  similar  character. 

That  there  is  a  new,  unique  and  [immensely 
important  quality  of  difference  is  shown  by  the 
extraordinary  spread  of  the  Ford  Hall  idea  through- 


24  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

out  the  country,  and  the  attention  it  has  attracted 
from  critics,  and  the  rehgious  and  secular  press. 

A  year  ago  the  story  of  Ford  Hall  might  have 
been  written  in  exactly  the  same  terms  as  to-day, 
but  the  implications  growing  out  of  the  spread  of 
the  idea  are  widely  different  in  the  middle  of  1915. 
Europe,  at  war,  is  likely  to  be  reborn  in  Peace. 
Bathed  in  blood,  having  received  a  baptism  of  fire, 
each  of  the  nations  will  come  forth  with  a  new 
spiritual  solidarity  unprecedented. 

But  this  coherence  will  be  the  child  of  strife  and 
force.  America,  lacking  this  sacrificial  cleansing, 
still  bearing  the  curse  of  Babel,  and  weakened  by 
corroding  class  hatreds,  must  win  her  way  to 
spiritual  unity  through  an  unfettering  of  thought 
and  speech  brought  about  by  the  pressure  of  love 
and  not  hate. 

George  W.  Coleman  may  be  the  man  of  destiny 
who  shall  multiply  Ford  Hall  Forums  by  the 
thousand,  preserving  the  simple  and  rational  mech- 
anism which  has  served  to  guarantee  that  perfect 
freedom  of  speech  which  has  perplexed  and  aston- 
ished Boston,  Boston,  apparently  incapable  of  sup- 
posing there  was  any  experiment  in  this  direction 
untried  in  her  laboratories. 

Democracy,  to  be  achieved  in  the  melting  pot 
of  the  New  World,  must  have  vortices  of  expression 
directed,  guided  and  inspired  by  a  statesmanlike 
principle,  by  a  judicially-minded,  far-visioned  leader, 
and  be  essentially  untrammeled  by  ignorance  or 
despotic,  bigoted  control. 


THE  SUNDAY-EVENING  MEETINGS        25 

If  at  this  period  in  social  evolution  the  world  gets 
through  the  work  of  one  man  a  simple  instrument 
of  articulation  that  guarantees  uninterrupted  prog- 
ress toward  enlightenment,  culture  and  knowledge 
of  the  universe,  that  man  would  seem  to  be  in 
some  sense  a  man  of  Destiny,  no  matter  how 
simple  his  method  or  how  indistinguishable  to  the 
mind  of  the  average  individual  the  quality  of  his 
technique  is  from  that  which  has  preceded  him  in 
the  history  of  leaders  and  teachers. 

This  is  an  age  of  extreme  delicacy  in  the  mech- 
anization of  progress.  Freedom  in  speech  un- 
dreamed of  in  the  Folkmoot  or  the  Witenagemat, 
the  Roman  forum  or  the  New  England  town  meet- 
ing, has  been  gained  at  Ford  Hall  by  the  high 
specialization  of  the  art  of  conducting  a  popular 
forum,  and  the  evolution  of  an  idea  and  an  ideal 
with  almost  unimaginable  precision  by  George  W. 
Coleman. 

The  true  story  of  Ford  Hall  cannot  yet  be  told. 
It  can  only  be  hinted  at,  since  the  future  will 
determine  if  its  plan  can  be  worked  out  over  and 
over  again  under  Mr.  Coleman's  direction  in  every 
community  in  the  land. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  CONTROLLING  PURPOSE  AND  SPIRIT 

By  Thomas  Dreier 

THE  only  people  who  are  not  welcomed 
here,"  said  the  Chairman  of  the  Ford 
Hall  Meetings,  in  one  of  his  prelimi- 
nary talks  at  the  opening  of  the  first  meeting  which 
the  writer  attended,  "are  the  church  people." 

That  sentence,  spoken  in  a  quiet,  matter-of-fact 
tone,  seemed  to  snap  in  spite  of  its  quietness. 
"Why,"  he  asked  himself,  "should  church  people 
be  excluded.'^" 

And  the  Chairman,  knowing  that  others  were 
asking  the  same  question,  especially  those  who 
were  present  for  the  first  time,  went  on  to  explain. 

"We  would  welcome  everybody,"  he  said,  "if  we 
had  room  for  them.  But  this  meeting  is  for  those 
who  have  no  church  home,  who  have  no  place  to 
go  for  mental  sustenance  and  moral  inspiration. 
We  want  men  and  women  who  belong  to  churches 
to  attend  their  services,  to  share  in  their  work. 
We  give  special  welcome  here  to  the  folks  outside 
the  churches." 

At  other  times,  in  personal  conversation,  he  ex- 
pressed to  me  his  belief  in  the  practical  value  of 


CONTROLLING  PURPOSE  AND  SPIRIT     27 

the  creative  idea  contained  in  that  ancient  com- 
mand,  "Feed  My  Lambs;    Feed  My  Sheep." 

"I  believe  that  people  should  go  to  church  be- 
cause they  will  find  there  the  food  they  need  for 
the  growth  of  spiritual  life.  They  come  to  Ford 
Hall  for  the  same  reason.  We  feed  them.  We 
want  them  to  grow,  to  develop,  to  become  better 
and  big'ger  citizens.  For  that  reason  we  preach,  if 
that  is  the  right  word  to  use,  a  gospel  of  neigh- 
borliness." 

It  may  be  said,  then,  that  the  controlling  spirit 
and  purpose  of  the  work  is  neighborliness.  No 
offence  to  race,  class,  or  creed  is  tolerated. 

"I  hate  that  man,"  some  great  writer  is  reported 
to  have  said  to  another,  pointing  to  a  third  man 
seated  at  a  table  in  a  public  restaurant. 

"But  you  don't  know  him,"  objected  his  com- 
panion. 

"Of  course  I  don't  know  him.  If  I  knew  him, 
I  would  probably  love  him." 

And  W.  E.  B.  DuBois  saw  what  the  leaders  of 
Ford  Hall  see  when  he  wrote: 

"Herein  lies  the  tragedy  of  the  age: 

Not  that  men  are  poor; 

All  men  know  something  of  poverty. 

Not  that  men  are  wicked; 

Who  is  good.'^ 

Not  that  men  are  ignorant; 

What  is  truth.? 

Nay,  but  that  men  should  know  so  little  of  each 
other." 


28  DEISIOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

In  the  old  story  of  tlie  building  of  the  Tower  of 
Babel,  the  workers  were  compelled  to  scatter  to  the 
ends  of  the  earth  because  they  could  not  under- 
stand one  another's  language.  In  Ford  Hall  indi- 
viduals are  brought  closer  together  because  they 
learn,  much  to  their  surprise  oftentimes,  that  they 
speak  a  common  tongue  and  have  a  common 
purpose. 

The  message  of  Ford  Hall  is  the  kind  of  message 
that  the  man  on  the  street  likes  because  it  con- 
cerns itself  largely  with  the  here  and  now.  It  is 
inspirational  in  its  effect  because  it  sends  the  indi- 
vidual into  the  world  looking  for  the  best  in  people 
and  things  "Let  there  be  light,"  is  the  command 
they  hear  thundering  into  their  ears,  and  "Love 
one  another"  is  the  message  that  finds  its  way 
into  their  hearts.  Individuals  working  together  for 
the  betterment  of  all  men  and  women  sometimes 
awaken  with  surprise  to  the  fact  that  they,  who  at 
first  seemed  to  have  nothing  in  common,  are  really 
interested  in  the  same  things.  Although  they  may 
never  express  it  in  words,  their  greetings  seem  to 
say  "I  love  you  because  you  love  the  things  I 
love." 

There  isn't  any  mushy  sentimentality  in  all  this. 
What  feeling  there  is,  is  real.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  emotional  part  is  a  by-product.  The  people 
realize  the  seriousness  of  the  problems  that  must 
be  solved,  and  they  instinctively  turn  with  warmth 
in  their  hearts  to  others  who  are  giving  their  time 
and  their  energy  to  the  cause  which  to  them  means 


CONTROLLING  PURPOSE  AND  SPIRIT     29 

so  much.     "We  are  fighting  the  same  fight,"  they 
say  in  their  hearts,  "so  let  us  be  friends." 

It  naturally  follows  that  when  individuals  repre- 
senting divergent  views  are  brought  together  in 
brotherliness,  classes  made  up  of  such  individuals 
are  also  brought  together.  No  class  can  hate  an- 
other that  it  fully  understands.  It  is  true  that 
Capital  is  sometimes  hit  hard  by  speakers  at  Ford 
Hall  and  also  by  those  who  ask  questions,  but  it  is 
also  true  that  the  shortcomings  and  inefficiencies  of 
labor  are  not  glossed  over.  The  fact  that  the 
spirit  of  fair  play  prevails  is  the  important  thing. 
The  Chairman,  whose  personality,  however  much 
he  himself  may  deny  it,  is  the  greatest  single  success 
factor  in  the  meetings,  is  essentially  a  just  judge. 
"Let  us,"  he  says,  "seek  the  truth.  Look  at  every 
side  of  this  question.  Condemn  no  man  on  the 
evidence  of  another.  Give  him  a  chance  to  tell 
L's  own  story.  Truth,  you  will  find,  exists  on  both 
sides  of  a  controversy.  Let  us  take  the  best  from 
both  and  out  of  it  construct  what  we  want." 

The  Ford  Hall  Meetings  have  proved  conclu- 
sively that  facts,  simply  because  they  are  facts, 
have  moral  power.  "Let  us  give  the  people  the 
whole  truth,  as  the  most  enlightened  leaders  see  it, 
and  then  give  them  an  opportunity  to  express  what 
seems  true  to  them.  Differences  will  soon  dis- 
appear," says  a  man  who  has  watched  the  work 
for  years. 

One  of  the  curious  effects  of  the  meetings  is  the 
creation  of  better  church  people.     More  than  one 


30  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

Jew,  who  had  drifted  from  the  faith  of  his  fathers 
and  had  found  no  substitute  that  would  hold  him 
true  to  the  highest  ideals  of  manhood,  was  sent 
back  into  the  synagogue,  carrying  with  him  the 
social  message  he  had  received  in  Ford  Hall. 

At  one  of  the  annual  banquets  a  brilliant  young 
Jew,  speaking  to  the  toast  "The  Silent  Gavel",  in 
trying  to  explain  why  no  gavel  had  been  needed 
by  the  Chairman  during  seven  years,  said  some- 
thing like  this,  "Some  give  the  credit  to  the  Chair- 
man, some  to  the  speakers,  some  give  this  reason 
and  others  that;  but  I  think  it  is  due  to  the  spirit 
that  is  engendered  by  the  meetings.  It  is  a  spirit 
of  fair  play,  of  open-mindedness,  of  kindly  con- 
sideration, of  respectful  toleration,  of  mutual 
friendliness  —  in  a  word  it  is  —  well,  for  the  lack 
of  a  better  word,  call  it  Christianity."  Such  was 
the  tribute  given  by  a  Jew  to  Christianity.  He 
had  discovered  for  himself  that  the  word  meant 
something  good. 

A  husband  and  wife  who  were  members  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  as  a  result  of  their  at- 
tendance at  Ford  Hall  Meetings,  found  themselves 
becoming  better  Catholics.  The  church  meant 
more  to  them.  It  is  interesting  to  know  that 
increasing  their  loyalty  to  their  church  did  not 
lessen  their  loyalty  to  Ford  Hall. 

If  they  had  gone  back  to  their  church  and  had 
never  again  appeared  at  Ford  Hall,  Ford  Hall 
would  have  been  content.  To  Ford  Hall  belong 
those  only  who  do  not  belong  elsewhere  and  who 


CONTROLLING  PURPOSE  AND  SPIRIT      31 

find  in  Ford  Hall  what  uplifts  them,  what  makes 
them  better  men  and  women  and  therefore  better 
citizens. 

A  young  woman  who  had  stood  in  the  cold  for 
over  an  hour  so  that  she  might  be  at  the  head  of 
the  line  of  people  waiting  for  the  doors  to  open  at 
seven  o'clock  and  thus  get  a  good  seat,  when  asked 
why  she  made  such  a  sacrifice  of  personal  comfort 
for  the  sake  of  a  lecture,  replied,  "It  isn't  any 
sacrifice.  I  would  stand  for  an  hour  every  Sunday 
night  if  I  had  to." 

"But  why  would  you.''"  persisted  the  questioner. 

She  seemed  at  a  loss  for  words.  Finally  she 
blurted  out,  "Because  the  meetings  make  me  feel 
good." 

And  what  else,  after  all  is  said,  is  there  to  any 
church.  To  make  the  people  feel  good  —  is  there 
anything  better .''  This  young  girl  went  back  into 
the  world  (a  hard  world,  too,  as  we  who  knew  her 
story  realized)  with  laughter  on  her  lips  and  joy 
in  her  heart.  "There  are  two  ways  by  which  we 
can  make  the  work  easier,"  said  one  speaker.  "We 
can  actually  lighten  the  burden  or  we  can  increase 
the  strength  of  the  burden  bearer." 

The  Ford  Hall  spirit  lightens  the  burden  carried 
by  many  a  heart.  It  makes  the  work  of  the  pres- 
ent easier  because  it  gives  to  the  people  a  vision 
of  a  finer  and  better  and  richer  to-morrow.  It 
gives  them  something  more  to  live  for  —  and,  as 
some  of  them  say,  something  more  to  die  for.  As 
the  dyer's  hand  is  tinted  by  the  colors  he  works  in, 


S2  DEINIOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

so  are  the  minds  of  men  colored  by  the  ideas  they 
entertain. 

The  speakers  who  come  with  their  messages  year 
after  year  are  constructives.  They  preach  no  gos- 
pel of  disaster.  They  bring  with  them  new  visions 
—  of  the  world  as  it  will  be  when  all  men  desire  a 
better  world.  They  picture  the  ideal  and  inspire 
their  hearers  to  work  until  that  ideal  has  been 
made  real.  "Because  they  have  no  vision  the 
people  perish"  can  never  be  said  of  the  folks  at 
Ford  Hall.  If  they  perish  at  all,  it  will  be  while 
fighting  to  make  some  vision  take  physical  form  in 
this  everyday  world  of  ours. 

"I  left  the  church  years  ago,"  said  one  young 
man,  "and  I  swore  by  all  the  gods  that  I  would 
never  go  back.  Well,  — "  he  smiled  a  bit,  —  "I'm 
going  back." 

"Why.?"  asked  a  friend. 

"For  self  protection,"  he  answered.  "If  I  don't 
go  back,  I'll  ruin  myself.  Automobile  drivers  are 
warned  not  to  let  their  engines  run  while  the  car 
is  standing,  because  a  free-running  engine  wears 
out  faster  than  an  engine  driving  a  car.  Outside 
the  church  I  am  like  an  engine  running  at  maximum 
speed  while  the  car  is  standing  at  the  curb." 

His  friend  was  plainly  puzzled.  "Just  what  does 
that  mean?" 

"It  means  this,"  was  the  answer:  "I  see  that 
there  is  so  much  work  to  be  done  for  men  and 
women  that  cannot  possibly  be  done  by  me  as  an 
individual.     Those  Ford  Hall   speakers  have  told 


CONTROLLING  PURPOSE  AND  SPIRIT     38 

me  what  the  church,  if  it  had  men  of  vision,  could 
do  for  humanity.  I  beheve  it  is  time  for  men  like 
me  to  get  back  into  the  church  and  make  use  of 
the  machinery  that  is  now  being  misused,  used  in- 
efficiently, or  not  used  at  all.  The  people  have  the 
power  to  make  the  church  the  social  instrument 
that  it  should  be." 

Curious,  isn't  it?  Here  is  a  free  platform  upon 
which  speakers  representing  nearly  every  "ism" 
stand  and  give  talks  that  for  frankness  and  fearless- 
ness cannot  be  surpassed.  Yet  the  effect  is  the 
creation  of  a  spirit  of  appreciation  of  all  the  great 
instruments  created  by  society  for  the  use  of 
humanity.  Never  was  church  money  used  for  out- 
side-the-church  purposes  with  such  profit  to  the 
church  and  the  highest  ideals  of  the  church. 

Spiritually  Ford  Hall  is  a  pioneer.  It  is  essen- 
tially the  kind  of  a  temple  described  by  Manson  in 
The  Servant  in  the  House,  when  he  tells  the  Bishop 
of  Stocks  and  Bonds  about  the  church  of  the  Bishop 
of  India: 

"The  pillars  of  it  go  up  like  the  brawny  trunks 
of  heroes;  the  sweet  human  flesh  of  men  and 
women  is  molded  about  its  bulwarks,  strong,  im- 
pregnable; the  faces  of  little  children  laugh  out 
from  every  cornerstone;  the  terrible  spans  and 
arches  of  it  are  the  joined  hands  of  comrades;  and 
up  in  the  heights  and  spaces  there  are  inscribed 
the  numberless  musings  of  all  the  dreamers  of  the 
world.  It  is  yet  building,  —  building  and  built 
upon.     Sometimes  the  work  goes  forward  in  deep 


S4  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

darkness;  sometimes  in  blinding  light,  now  be- 
neath the  burden  of  unutterable  anguish;  now  to 
the  tune  of  a  great  laughter  and  heroic  shoutings 
like  the  cry  of  thunder.  Sometimes  in  the  silence 
of  the  nighttime  one  may  hear. the  tiny  hammer- 
ings of  the  comrades  at  work  up  in  the  dome  — 
the  comrades  that  have  climbed  ahead."  ^ 

And  so,  in  a  spiritual  sense,  the  speakers  at 
Ford  Hall  are  comrades  that  have  climbed  ahead 
and  are  helping  their  fellows  to  reach  the  heights. 

*  From  "The  Servant  in  the  House."  Copyright,  1908,  by  Charles 
Rann  Kennedy. 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  RANGE  OF  SPEAKERS  AND  TOPICS 

By  James  P.  Roberts 

GRANT  the  possession  of  a  real  message, 
an  earnest  purpose,  and  a  sincere  mind, 
and  any  speaker  is  welcome  at  Ford 
Hall  who  can  "deliver  the  goods."  It  is  one  thing 
to  be  stocked  with  truths;  quite  another  to  be  a 
good  salesman.  Nobody  asks,  nobody  cares  what 
the  speaker's  formal  creed  may  be,  nor  to  what 
sovereign  he  owes  allegiance.  Doctor  Yamei  Kin, 
Chinese;  Professor  Joshi,  Hindu;  Doctor  van 
Eeden,  Dutch;  Baroness  von  Suttner,  German; 
Frau  Schwimmer,  Hungarian;  Doctor  DuBois,  of 
African  descent,  as  well  as  President  Faunce,  sure 
Yankee,  each  receives  the  same  considerate  atten- 
tion, and  his  or  her  message  is  accepted  as  a  true 
expression  of  one  individual's  thought  for  the  com- 
mon good.  It  is  marvelous,  too,  where  the  audi- 
ence is  so  frankly  skeptical,  how  friendly  it  is;  and 
how  it  learns  to  love  many  of  the  ministers  who 
come  in  a  like  spirit. 

Studying    the   list^    of   one   hundred    and   eighty 
evenings,  we  easily  recognize  one-half  of  the  speak- 

^  For  list  of  speakers  and  their  topics  see  Appendix. 


36  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

ers  as  prominent  religious  leaders,  —  most  of  them 
clergymen,  priests,  and  rabbis.  A  casual  count 
revealed  the  following: 

21  Baptists  7  Presbyterians 

17  Jews  5  Roman  Catholics 

12  Congregationalists  4  Methodists 

11  Unitarians  3  New  Thought 

10  Episcopalians  2  Universalists 

and  no  doubt  the  other  half  are  equally  men  of 
faith,  though  more  inclined  perhaps  to  unconven- 
tional ways  of  expressing  it. 

Another  method  by  which  we  may  classify  our 
speakers  is  by  occupations,  though  many  a  man 
or  woman  is  so  versatile  as  to  make  a  single  niche 
appear  too  limiting.  But  by  vocations  they  appear 
somewhat  as  follows: 


Preachers, 

68 

College  professors. 

27  (including  4  Presidents) 

Business  men. 

20 

Social  workers, 

18 

Publicists, 

18 

Journalists, 

16 

Lecturers, 

15 

Teachers, 

8 

Workingmen, 

5 

Physicians, 

5 

Lawyers, 

3 

Why  the  dearth  of  lawyers.''     As  a  profession  are 
they    content    in    maintaining    the    present    social 


RANGE  OF  SPEAKERS  AND  TOPICS       37 

order,  too  willing  to  accept  retainers  from  the  con- 
servatives; so  bound  to  precedent  they  seldom 
appear  as  leaders  in  radical  or  progressive  move- 
ments? We  can  readily  understand  the  average 
busy  physician  being  loath  to  take  time,  or  feeling 
he  has  not  the  ability  to  lead  in  great  discussions, 
but  must  the  lawyer  be  paid  if  he  is  to  be  heard? 
No;  this  cannot  be  the  correct  answer.  What  is? 
Some  twelve  times,  averaging  more  than  once  a 
year,  we  have  had  two  or  more  speakers  the  same 
evening,  —  five  evenings  with  two,  three  evenings 
with  three,  three  evenings  with  four,  and  one 
evening  with  five  speakers.  Never  has  there  been 
a  "political  night",  although  one  evening  was  de- 
voted to  the  schools  on  the  eve  of  an  election.  Of 
men  prominent  in  political  life  there  has  been  a 
complete  absence.  This  has  been  by  design  on 
the  part  of  the  management.  It  is  interesting,  too, 
to  see  where  our  nearly  two  hundred  speakers  are 
domiciled : 

Greater  Boston,  56  New  England,  19 

New  York  City,  53  Central  States,  18 

Western  States,  26  Southern  States,  4 

Abroad,  20 

Of  another  class  there  has  been  a  dearth  of 
speakers,  —  the  employers.  Not  in  words,  but  by 
their  works  mostly  do  we  know  them.  Some 
claim  the  Committee  must  organize  a  man-hunt 
before  a  real  "Captain  of  Industry"  can  be  ex- 
hibited here.     Yet  of  whole-souled,  big-minded  em- 


431718 


38  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

ployers  we  have  had  at  least  three,  —  the  lamented 
Joseph  Fels  (whose  vocation  was  soap  and  whose 
avocation  the  single-tax),  Jonathan  Thayer  Lincoln, 
the  Fall  River  manufacturer,  and  Edward  A.  Filene, 
the  Boston  merchant.  One  other  of  our  speakers 
well  deserves  special  mention, — Louis  D.  Brandeis, — 
for  many  a  Captain  of  Industry  has  surrendered  to 
his  ideas  in  this  age  of  the  common  people. 

So  loyal  and  self-sacrificing  have  been  some  of 
our  friends  that  we  find  them  speaking  to  us  year 
after  year.  Out  of  the  one  hundred  and  eighty 
evenings,  ninety  have  been  taken  by  men  or 
women  who  have  appeared  more  than  once;  and 
this  roll  of  friends  contains  no  less  than  thirty 
persons.  Professor  Charles  Zueblin  leads  with 
eight  evenings  to  his  credit;  Professor  Rauschen- 
busch  follows,  with  a  credit  of  six;  and  next  come 
Rabbi  Wise  and  Rabbi  Schulman,  each  of  whom 
has  been  with  us  on  five  occasions.  Among  the 
list  are  found  great  churchmen,  able  editors,  strong 
teachers,  and  prominent  publicists. 

An  analysis  covering  seven  years  brings  out  more 
strongly  the  likeness  between  the  programs  of  the 
"Meetings"  and,  say,  the  curriculum  of  a  socio- 
logical course.  But  the  latter,  notwithstanding, 
probably  never  offered  ten  lectures  dealing  with 
the  "Soul";  nor  has  it  laid  out  an  18-hole  course 
in  the  field  of  "  Citizenship."  Such  a  curriculum 
might  devote  twenty  hours  to  the  Principles  of 
Pedagogy;   but  Ford  Hall  has. 

Because  Man  is  "incurably  religious",  we  find 


RANGE  OF  SPEAKERS  AND  TOPICS       39 

the  subjects  of  Religion  and  the  Church  taking  the 
lead  in  serving  as  the  motif  for  the  greatest  number 
of  meetings.  Even  the  auditors  seem  more  alert, 
if  not  more  numerous,  when  Shailer  Mathews,  Mary 
Antin,  or  George  A.  Gordon  discusses  man's  rela- 
tion to  God.  Yet  Ford  Hall  isn't  even  a  church 
for  the  unorthodox,  from  the  standpoint  of  Mr. 
Hard  Shell  Baptist,  while  some  of  its  themes  do 
not  appear  old  enough  to  be  respectable  in  the 
eyes  of  many  individually  good  men.  However, 
styles  are  changing. 

The  writer's  classification  of  the  dominating 
themes  of  the  one  hundred  and  eighty  programs 
is  as  follows: 

Religion  and  the  Church,  22 
Race  Problems,  19 

Citizenship,  18 

Democracy,  17 

Ethics,  17 

Socialism,  'pro  and  con,       11 
Social  Institutions,  11 

Education,  10 

The  Individual  Soul,  10 

Labor  Problems,  9 

Feminism,  8 

Single  Tax,  7 

Brotherhood,  5 

Orientalism,  4 

The  Jew,  4 

Business,  4 

War,  4 


40  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  :MAKING 

With  the  increasing  interest  and  waxing  power  of 
the  feminist  movement,  we  note  its  share  in  the 
meetings,  both  as  to  women  who  speak  and  as  to 
topics  where  some  phase  of  the  "eternal  feminine" 
holds  sway.  While  but  eight  evenings  have  been 
devoted  to  this  theme,  we  have  listened  to  twenty- 
three  women,  —  leaders  of  their  sex,  and  recognized 
as  such  not  only  in  the  United  States  but,  some  of 
them,  also  in  Europe  and  the  East.  For  instance, 
Baroness  von  Suttner,  Mrs.  Florence  Kelley,  Maud 
Ballington  Booth,  Frau  Schwimmer,  and  Mary 
Antin  enjoy  international  reputations. 

Speaking  of  the  ladies  and  of  the  ages  of  our 
speakers,  one  must  beware;  the  vivacity  of  the 
women  who  have  appeared  on  our  platform  would 
convince  us  that  all  were  in  their  teens.  But  of 
the  men  the  writer's  impression  is  that  in  age  they 
average  well  above  that  of  their  audience.  Certain 
it  is  that  we  have  had  no  young  and  irresponsible 
agitators. 

We  find  but  thirteen  addresses  out  of  the  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty  that  seem  to  center  about  the  indi- 
vidual, —  his  soul,  life  here  and  hereafter,  and  the 
unit  point  of  view.  Even  less  has  the  family  and 
the  home  been  made  the  basic  element  in  the  dis- 
cussions. Of  biographical  evenings  we  have  had 
six,  but  these  were  justified  by  the  pertinency  of 
the  lives  considered.  But  no  address  because  it  was 
merely  entertaining,  historical,  or  cultural  has  ever 
been  allowed.  The  aim  has  been  to  find  the  moral 
or  spiritual  side  of  the  topics  considered.     Socialism 


RANGE  OF  SPEAKERS  AND  TOPICS       41 

has  been  talked  about  from  varying  points  of 
view,  yet  we  have  never  considered  it  under  the 
spell  of  an  active  propagandist;  and  we  have  had 
no  debates,  though  different  aspects  of  the  same 
question  have  sometimes  been  handled  the  same 
night.  The  stereopticon  has  been  used  but  once,  — 
when  Frederic  C.  Howe  spoke  on  the  beautifying 
of  our  cities.  Many  questions,  —  such  as  Woman's 
Suffrage,  Temperance,  Sex,  —  have  been  presented 
once  or  twice  only.  We  have  never  indulged  from 
the  platform  in  things  merely  denunciatory  or  de- 
structive, and  have  had  little  that  was  anti-  this 
or  that.  Concrete  actualities  as  against  abstract 
principles  bear  the  relation  of  one  to  six,  although 
we  have  been  concerned  almost  exclusively  with 
the  life  of  man  here  and  now. 

For  a  Bostonian  who  hears  his  Symphony  Or- 
chestra but  once  a  year  to  attempt  to  analyze  the 
music  at  Ford  Hall,  —  to  venture  anything  by  way 
of  criticism,  —  would  be  foolhardy.  Its  audience 
delights  in  a  "musical  setting."  Radical  though 
he  be  in  his  social  program,  the  average  man  is  a 
Standpatter  in  music.  Perhaps  we  at  Ford  Hall  love 
to  sing,  and  can't!  A  schoolboy  chorus  certainly 
would  put  us  to  shame  in  volume  of  song.  But  un- 
stinted is  the  applause  for  the  master  at  the  violin, 
the  singer,  and  instrumentalist,  as  each  gives  of  his 
best,  in  the  half-hour  concert  that  precedes  the 
address.  Miss  Crawford  will  doubtless  have  the 
material  in  hand  for  a  volume  of  "Songs  of  Social 
Salvation"   long  before  standing  armies  are  abol- 


42  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

ished.  A  number  of  hymns  have  been  written 
by  the  Folks  themselves,  some  are  garnered  from 
the  four  winds  of  heaven,  and  all  are  being 
cherished  and  preserved  against  that  day  when  we 
may  want  to  print  them  as  we  have  the  Chairman's 
"Prayers." 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  METHOD  OF  CONDUCTING  THE  MEETINGS 

By  Miriam  Allen  deFord 

THE  Ford  Hall  Sunday-evening  Meeting 
begins  around  the  corner  an  hour  before 
the  doors  open.  The  line  which  stretches 
in  two  directions  from  the  doors  on  Ashburton 
Place,  and  which  sometimes  extends  for  over  a 
block  either  way,  has  never  yet  found  an  adequate 
godparent.  "The  Bread  of  Life  Line,"  it  has  been 
called;  "the  Hope  Line,"  "the  Sharp  Line"  (for 
Daniel  Sharp  Ford),  and  many  other  things;  but 
so  far  no  title  has  ever  justly  characterized  that 
long  double  row  of  expectant  men  and  women, 
sometimes  cold,  often  wet,  always  tired,  but  per- 
meated through  and  through  with  eagerness,  live 
interest,  and  the  spirit  of  brotherhood.  Up  and 
down  this  line  the  sales  manager  of  Ford  Hall  Folks 
plies  his  trade,  and  Chairman  Coleman  converses 
with  individuals  here  and  there.  Shortly  before 
seven  the  outside  ushers  see  that  each  person  is 
supplied  with  a  door  check,  so  that  no  late  comer 
can  break  into  the  head  of  the  line  and  gain  an 
unfair  advantage.  And  at  seven  a  thrill  runs 
through  the  crowd,  the  doors  are  thrown  open,  and 
Ford  Hall  receives  its  children. 


44  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

There  is  no  spectacle  in  all  Boston  to  match 
that  surging  in  of  the  outside  line.  Ten  minutes 
after  the  doors  are  open,  the  hall  is  filled,  floor  and 
balcony,  the  legal  allowance  of  persons  standing  in 
the  back  have  been  admitted,  and  the  doors  are 
closed  again,  with  a  "Standing  Room  Only,"  or 
more  usually,  a  "Hall  Full"  sign  on  them,  and 
perhaps  with  disappointed  men  and  women  still 
waiting  outside  in  the  hope  that  a  few  will  leave 
early  whose  places  they  may  take.  Sometimes 
this  quota  waits  until  nine  o'clock,  simply  for  the 
chance  of  getting  in  for  the  question  period.  Other 
organizations  judge  the  success  of  their  ventures  by 
the  number  they  take  in;  Ford  Hall  expects  always 
to  be  crowded,  and  judges  of  success  by  the  num- 
ber turned  away.  That  number  has  at  times 
reached  two  thousand  five  hundred,  besides  the 
twelve  hundred  in  the  hall. 

For  half  an  hour  the  audience  waits  in  perfect 
patience  and  good  temper.  There  is  something  of 
the  atmosphere  of  the  reunion  of  a  social  club,  or 
of  a  big  family  come  home  for  Christmas.  Friends 
greet  friends.  Town  Meeting  and  Ford  Hall  Folks 
topics  and  problems  are  discussed,  there  is  much 
conversation  and  laughter  to  and  fro.  One  learns 
to  look  for  certain  familiar  faces  in  the  same  spot, 
unofficially  consecrated  to  them,  —  two  of  our 
blind  listeners  in  the  first  row,  our  colored  friend 
in  the  right-hand  gallery,  the  policeman's  wife  in 
the  left-hand.  And  the  Ford  Hall  Folks  sales  man- 
ager and  his  busy  assistants  call  the  current  issue 


CONDUCTING  THE  MEETINGS  45 

of  the  magazine  up  and  down  the  aisles,  while  the 
stajff  of  volunteer  ushers  sees  that  an  occasional 
vacant  place  is  filled,  that  the  seats  reserved  for 
the  outside  ushers  are  kept  for  them,  and  that 
everybody  has  a  program. 

At  7.30  the  meeting  is  formally  opened  by  half 
an  hour  of  music.  In  the  early  days  this  music 
was  paid  for;  now  it  is  as  freely  offered  as  the 
lectures,  and  of  as  high  quality.  It  is  infinite  in 
its  variety:  —  instrumental,  vocal,  or  both;  some- 
times an  orchestra  or  a  chorus;  once  a  phonograph 
recital;  occasionally  a  reading  or  recitation  in  addi- 
tion. Half  way  through  the  musical  program  the 
first  hymn  is  sung  by  the  audience,  with  Mr. 
Foster  leading  as  precentor  and  Mr.  Lipkin  at  the 
piano.  The  words  of  the  hymns  are  printed  on 
the  four-page  program;  the  tunes  are  mostly 
familiar  ones  that  everybody  knows. 

Eight  o'clock  sees  the  end  of  the  music  period, 
which  is  followed  by  Mr.  Coleman's  prayer.  The 
prayer  is  not  invariable;  out  of  courtesy,  it  is 
never  offered  when  the  speaker  is  a  clergyman  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  is  omitted  at 
will  in  any  case,  so  that  no  one  can  possibly  accuse 
it  of  smacking  of  ritualism.  It  is  perhaps  the  only 
prayer  in  the  world  that  is  greeted  with  applause. 
During  two  meetings  of  the  Ford  Hall  folks  on 
Sunday  afternoons  there  was  an  effort  made  to 
find  a  better  form  of  recognition  and  approval  of 
the  prayer.  As  it  is,  our  old  English  friend  greets 
it    always    with    a    fervent    "Hear!     Hear!"    and 


46  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

doubtless  there  are  pious  souls  in  the  audience  who 
give  voice  to  an  "Amen";  but  the  final  decision 
was  to  leave  things  as  they  are,  and  so  the  audi- 
ence in  general  still  applauds. 

After  necessary  notices  have  been  given,  the 
speaker  is  introduced  (half  the  time  at  least  he  is 
an  old  friend  who  needs  no  formal  introduction, 
but  is  acclaimed  with  enthusiastic  applause  the 
minute  he  arrives),  and  from  eight  to  nine  he  holds 
the  floor,  while  with  perfect  freedom  and  spon- 
taneity he  expounds  his  views  to  one  of  the  most 
responsive  audiences  in  America.  Another  hymn 
follows  his  speech,  sung  this  time  with  the  audi- 
ence standing,  and  then  comes  an  intermission  of 
three  or  four  minutes,  to  allow  time  for  those  to 
leave  who  must,  and  for  those  who  cannot  stay 
till  ten  o'clock  to  retire  to  the  rear  of  the  hall, 
where  they  can  get  out  easily  without  disturbing 
others. 

And  then  comes  the  question  period !  —  entirely 
worthy  of  an  exclamation  point,  for  it  is  the  focus 
around  which  every  bit  of  Ford  Hall  activity  and 
spirit  really  groups  itself.  The  question  period, 
when  the  listeners  "get  back"  at  the  speaker,  is 
the  soul  of  Ford  Hall,  as  it  must  be  of  any  live, 
open  forum.  The  audience  is  taken  by  groups, 
sometimes  starting  with  the  floor,  sometimes  with 
the  gallery,  sometimes  with  the  right-hand  side  and 
sometimes  with  the  left-hand,  but  the  entire  hall 
being  called  upon  in  order,  and  no  further  ques- 
tions being  allowed  from  a  section  that  has  been 


CONDUCTING  THE  MEETINGS  47 

passed.  Everybody  who  wishes  is  allowed  one 
question;  very  rarely  the  same  person  is  allowed 
two.  Before  the  speaker  answers,  each  question  is 
repeated  by  Mr.  Coleman  from  the  platform,  so 
that  it  can  be  distinctly  heard  all  over  the  hall,  — 
and  also  so  that  the  speaker  can  have  a  second  in 
which  to  formulate  his  reply.  The  questions  are 
frequently  pregnant,  sometimes  pithy,  though  often 
they  require  condensation.  They  bring  out  some- 
times the  cream  of  the  lecture,  by  glancing  on  a 
vital  point  that  the  regular  speech  has  not  included. 
Certain  types  of  questions  may  always  be  expected; 
an  evening  without  Socialist,  woman  suffrage,  and 
theological  queries,  is  almost  unknown:  certain  per- 
sons will  always  ask  questions,  and  when  one  comes 
to  know  them,  one  knows  also  the  sort  of  question 
they  will  ask;  but  just  as  surely  new  questioners 
arise,  and  entirely  new  and  striking  questions  be 
asked.  The  questions  are  surprisingly  relevant; 
the  proportion  of  entirely  irrelevant  queries  is  ex- 
tremely small.  One  of  the  most  interesting  phases 
of  this  last  hour  is  the  questions  asked  by  for- 
eigners in  a  largely  foreign  audience.  These 
earnest  men  and  women  may  be  struggling  almost 
unintelligibly  with  the  English  language;  the  form 
of  their  question  may  bring  forth  a  gale  of  laughter; 
but  they  know  what  they  want  to  ask,  and  there 
is  always  a  real,  answerable  inquiry  at  the  bottom 
of  it. 

At  ten  o'clock^Mr.  Coleman  calls  "Good  Night", 
to  the  audience,  and  the  audience  answers  "Good 


48  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

Night",  and  prepares  to  leave;  but  it  is  only  the 
formal  meeting  that  is  over.  There  is  a  rush  for 
the  platform,  to  shake  the  lecturer's  hand,  to  say 
that  one  liked  or  (sometimes)  did  not  like  him,  to 
ask  that  burning  question  that  occurred  to  the 
mind  after  one's  section  had  been  passed.  Groups 
linger  outside,  too,  in  the  lobby  and  on  the  pave- 
ment, discussing  eagerly  the  topic  of  the  evening 
and  the  many  subjects  radiating  from  it.  The 
lights  have  to  be  turned  out,  and  the  doors  locked, 
before  the  Ford  Hall  audience  is  really  ready  to 
go  home,  and  then  it  would  rather  not! 

That  is  a  Ford  Hall  Meeting,  the  freest  thing  in 
Boston,  in  every  sense  of  the  word.  An  appropria- 
tion from  the  Daniel  Sharp  Ford  fund  through 
the  Boston  Baptist  Social  Union  entirely  supports 
these  meetings,  and  the  audience  contributes 
nothing  but  the  biggest  things  of  all,  —  interest 
and  co-operation  and  good  will.  The  little  maga- 
zine does  not  come  from  the  fund;  it  just  clears 
expenses  by  the  return  from  sales  and  advertising. 
Once  a  year,  before  Christmas,  there  is  a  collec- 
tion for  the  janitor  and  the  paid  attendants 
around  the  hall;  but  regular  collections  are  en- 
tirely unknown.  Frequently  newcomers  to  the 
audience  have  in  the  past  asked  if  it  would  not  be 
possible  to  contribute  more  concretely  to  the  meet- 
ings and  their  allied  work.  Finally,  in  response  to 
such  requests,  the  Ford  Hall  Folks  decided  to  have 
contribution  boxes  put  up  in  the  hall,  in  which 
might  be  placed  either  money  or  suggestions  for 


CONDUCTING  THE  MEETINGS  49 

the  improvement  of  the  meetings.  Bu.t  when  it 
came  to  a  question  of  the  disposal  of  the  money 
so  gained,  there  was  unanimous  objection  to  using 
it  for  any  needy  individual  person  or  persons  in 
the  Ford  Hall  assembly.  Many  of  those  who 
made  this  decision  were  themselves  without  work 
in  a  hard  winter;  but  unanimously  again  they 
voted  that  the  money  from  the  contribution  boxes 
should  go  for  "foreign  missionary  work,"  —  to 
spread  the  gospel  of  Ford  Hall  and  the  open  forum 
throughout  New  England  and  the  country  at  large. 
Ford  Hall  had  meant  enough  to  them  and  had 
taught  them  enough  altruism,  to  make  every  indi- 
vidual of  them  anxious  to  spread  its  inspiring 
message  where  it  had  not  been  heard. 

That  is  Ford  Hall  spirit:  it  is  a  far  finer  and 
higher  thing  than  any  formal  meeting  ever  con- 
ducted in  any  hall  for  any  purpose;  and  it  is  the 
thing  that  makes  the  Ford  Hall  Sunday-evening 
Meetings  worth  conducting. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  TOWN  MEETING  AND  OTHER  FORD  HALL 
ACTIVITIES 

By  William  Horton  Foster 

FORD  HALL  has  its  inner  circle.  But  this 
group  has  developed  spontaneously  like 
the  institution  itself,  for  Ford  Hall  is  not 
a  meeting,  or  a  meeting  place;  it  is  an  Institution. 
No  one  seems  able  to  point  to  the  first  time  when 
the  Ford  Hall  Folks  came  into  existence;  people 
interested  in  the  meetings  found  themselves  coming 
together  to  talk  things  over.  They  wanted  to  see 
what  they  could  do  to  help.  The  group  grew 
larger  and  larger.  At  first  it  was  informal  in  its 
meetings,  but  organization  was  soon  needed,  and 
before  any  one  really  knew  it,  the  Ford  Hall  Folks 
was  a  fact. 

But  this  group  is  not  created  by  any  specific 
appointment.  General  invitations  are  given,  asking 
any  one  interested  to  meet  every  third  Sunday 
afternoon  in  Kingsley  Hall,  the  smaller  hall  in  the 
Ford  Building.  Here  the  conduct  of  the  Sunday- 
night  Meetings  is  discussed,  questions  of  policy 
thought  out,  and  suggestions  for  improvement 
brought    forward.     During    the    years    Ford    Hall 


THE  TOWN  MEETING  51 

Folks  has  become  more  articulate,  more  organic; 
yet  its  elements  have  remained,  as  at  first, 
absolutely  independent  and  atomic. 

To  the  spiritual  biologist,  the  development  of 
this  organization  is  most  interesting.  These  human 
atoms  blend  into  an  organism,  impelled  only  from 
within  and  acknowledging  no  compulsion  from 
without.  A  common  purpose  moves  them,  no  outer 
force  drives  them.  They  believe  in  the  Ford  Hall 
Sunday-evening  Meetings,  and  in  the  democracy 
of  the  meetings.  Their  chief  concern  is  to  conserve 
that  democracy  and  to  make  it  more  eflBcient. 

The  attendance  at  the  Ford  Hall  Folks  Meetings 
varies,  though  usually  about  a  hundred  in  number, 
often  changed  in  personnel  but  the  same  group  in 
its  composite  character.  There  are  some  veterans 
who  have  been  attendants  since  the  meetings 
began.  A  veritable  Old  Guard  they  are,  and  upon 
slight  occasion  they  will  recall  the  early  struggles 
and  the  early  triumphs.  The  passion  for  democ- 
racy which  pervades  the  Sunday-night  audiences 
is  in  this  group  carried  to  the  nth  degree.  To  this 
test  are  all  their  theories  subjected:  is  the  thing 
democratic,  and,  because  Ford  Hall  and  Democracy 
are  synonymous,  is  it  consistent  with  the  Ford  Hall 
Idea? 

To  this  meeting  the  Director  discloses  his  plans. 
They  are  discussed.  He  asks  for  suggestions  from 
the  Folks.  The  suggestions  come,  sometimes  as 
thick  as  leaves  in  autumn.  Out  of  it  all,  come 
the  plans   which  have  made  the  conduct  of  the 


52  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  IVIAKING 

meetings  such  a  smooth-running  thing.  The  wait- 
ing line  of  people  outside  the  hall,  —  how  shall  it 
be  asked  to  govern  itself?  How  shall  that  line, 
patiently  waiting  its  chance  at  the  open  door,  be 
protected  from  the  outer  crowd  who  are  not  fair- 
minded?  Shall  we  sing  hymns  or  not;  shall  we 
have  a  choir?  How  shall  we  express  our  approval 
of  the  prayer,  —  by  amen!  or  applause?  Shall 
the  Folks  have  seats  reserved  in  the  hall  up-stairs; 

—  these  and  countless  other  matters  are  thrashed 
out  in  the  Sunday-afternoon  Meetings  of  the  Ford 
Hall  Folks. 

Occasionally,  of  an  afternoon,  some  one  talks 
to  the  Folks  on  some  intimate  topic  of  more  direct 
personal  concern.  And  always  the  afternoon  ends 
with  a  modest  lunch  together.  Remember  that 
the  Ford  Hall  Folks  are  made  up  of  all  races,  all 
nations,  all  creeds,  and  all  faiths.  Does  not  the 
significance  of  this  eating  together  appeal  to  you? 

In  addition  to  the  getting  together  socially  on 
these  Sunday  afternoons,  the  Ford  Hall  Folks 
close  the  season  with  a  banquet  and  have  occasional 
summer  outings  together.  And  that  banquet!  All 
the  pent-up  enthusiasm  of  our  Ford  Hall-ites  for 
the  meetings  and  the  Idea  finds  free  expression. 
They  sing  the  praises  of  their  beloved  Alma  Mater, 

—  for  that  is  what  Ford  Hall  is  to  them, — and 
voice  their  regret  at  the  close  of  the  meetings  for 
the  summer.  As  one  speaker  said  at  the  last 
banquet,  "The  Sun  has  been  taken  out  of  Sunday" 
for  them. 


THE  TOWN  MEETING  53 

Twice  during  tlie  summer  season  at  least  the 
Ford  Hall  Folks  and  their  friends  gather  on  the 
seashore  or  at  some  country  park  for  an  old- 
fashioned  picnic.  It  is  old-fashioned  in  the  sense 
that  they  sit  around  on  the  sand  or  the  grass  and 
eat  their  basket  lunch.  It  is  as  different,  however, 
in  its  make-up  as  Ford  Hall  itself  is  different. 
Jew  and  Gentile,  agnostic  and  believer,  mingle 
in  the  Sunday-night  Meetings;  they  mingle  as 
freely  on  the  picnic  ground.  Roumanians  and 
Greeks,  Montenegrins  and  Italians,  Russians  and 
Germans,  all  nations  as  well  as  all  creeds  play 
together  as  freely  as  they  discuss  great  civic 
questions  together  in  the  winter.  Playing  together 
is  a  great  dynamic,  and  the  play  of  the  picnics  and 
of  the  annual  banquet  supplies  a  vital  element  to 
the  Ford  Hall  Idea. 

Two  notable  enterprises  stand  out  among  the 
achievements  of  the  Ford  Hall  Folks.  Like  the 
other  expressions  of  the  Ford  Hall  Idea,  these  two 
grew  naturally  from  the  parent  stock.  The  first 
is  the  paper,  the  organ  of  the  Ford  Hall  Idea, — 
Ford  Hall  Folks. 

In  spite  of  possible  confusion  in  the  names  of 
the  two  institutions.  Ford  Hall  Folks,  the  group, 
and  Ford  Hall  Folks,  the  paper,  the  paper  could 
really  have  no  other  name.  That  is  the  distinctive 
idea  through  it  all, —  just  Folks  who  believe  in  Ford 
Hall.  How  could  the  paper  which  is  but  the 
visible  typed  expression  of  that  composite  group's 
character  call  itself  by  any  other  name?   It  has  had 


54  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

a  career  varied  in  only  one  way,  and  that  is  in 
the  extent  of  its  growth  and  development,  never 
in  the  fact  of  such  an  evolution. 

The  paper  was  discussed  and  discussed.  At 
length  it  was  started,  at  first  in  size  little  larger 
than  a  bulletin,  but  differing  slightly  in  form  from 
the  programs  of  the  evening  meeting.  The  second 
year,  however,  it  took  a  more  pretentious  size, 
an  adult,  man-sized  page,  if  you  please,  following 
the  example  of  many  of  the  leading  national 
magazines.  The  second  year  saw  four  pages,  but 
this  year,  the  third  of  its  history,  the  paper  boasts 
of  eight  pages, —  and  all  filled  with  good,  worth- 
while  stuff. 

The  staff  has  followed  the  lines  of  ordinary 
journals.  It  has  its  Editor-in-chief,  Managing 
Editor,  and  Reporter;  it  has  its  Business,  its 
Advertising,  and  its  Sales  Managers.  The  emolu- 
ments of  these  positions  have  of  course  been  in 
the  glory  of  the  service  rendered,  for  here  again, 
as  in  all  the  other  functions  of  Ford  Hall,  the 
cooperation  of  all  for  the  common  end  has  been 
both  the  test  of  the  service  and  its  reward. 

The  content  of  the  paper  has  of  course  centered 
around  the  Sunday-night  Meetings  themselves. 
At  first  the  paper  contained  but  a  report  of  the 
evening's  address.  Then  followed  the  questions 
and  answers  which  accompanied  the  lecture.  Then 
comments  by  the  Director  on  the  Ford  Hall  Idea 
in  action;  then  some  brilliant  genre  artistry  in  bits 
of   biography   of   some   of   the   Folks    themselves. 


THE  TOWN  MEETING  55 

Then,  as  the  Idea  spread  beyond  the  walls  of 
Ford  Hall,  came  other  matters  of  general  interest 
and  concern  to  believers  not  only  in  Ford  Hall 
but  in  the  Open  Forum  idea  generally.  Before 
it  was  realized,  Ford  Hall  Folks  and  the  Ford  Hall 
Idea  had  a  dignified,  able  organ  in  Ford  Hall  Folks, 
a  journal  competent  to  set  forth  its  principles  and 
practice  in  the  forum  of  thought. 

Its  finances  have  been  kept  close  to  the  line. 
It  has  cleared  its  expenses  each  year  and  preserved 
a  dignity  of  dress  befitting  its  high  office.  It 
could  not  thus  have  paid  its  way,  let  it  be  frankly 
admitted,  if  the  work  done  upon  the  paper  had 
been  paid  for  in  the  ordinary  way.  Here  again 
the  Ford  Hall  spirit  operated.  From  the  Director 
clear  through  to  the  occasional  purchaser,  the 
service  rendered  has  been  because  of  Ford  Hall. 
That  tells  the  story. 

The  other  prominent  achievement  of  Ford  Hall 
Folks  was  the  launching  of  the  Ford  Hall  Town 
Meeting.  Unquestionably  this  enterprise  ranks 
second  only  to  the  Sunday-night  Meetings  them- 
selves. It  supplements  those  activities  in  a  field  all 
its  own.  It  is  as  intensely  democratic  as  is  the 
Sunday-night  Meeting,  but  it  gets  down  to  more 
practical  details.  Up-stairs  the  question  must  be 
discussed  in  the  large.  Men  and  women  find  them- 
selves lifted  to  the  skies  on  a  wave  of  exaltation 
produced  by  the  message  of  some  of  our  prophets 
of  to-day.  Night  after  night  in  the  great  hall  the 
people — the  Folks  who  love  Ford  Hall  —  look  into 


56  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

the  calm  face  of  Daniel  Sharp  Ford  gazing  at 
them  from  a  noble  canvas.  They  look  again  into 
the  kindly  eyes  of  the  chairman,  the  spiritual  heir 
of  Daniel  Sharp  Ford,  and  see  there  the  interpreta- 
tion of  Ford's  dream.  They  listen  to  the  words  of 
the  prophet  speaker,  —  and  the  hope  of  a  better  day 
lying  in  Daniel  Sharp  Ford's  eyes,  the  power  and 
comradeship  of  George  W.  Coleman's  presence,  and 
the  message  of  the  speaker  all  fuse  into  a  splendid 
enthusiasm  to  bring  this  kingdom  of  God  to  earth, 
here  and  now.  Where  is  the  outlet  for  this  en- 
thusiasm?    In  the  Town  Meeting. 

Several  of  the  Folks  had  from  time  to  time 
suggested  that  a  series  of  classes  for  strictly  cultural 
work  should  be  organized  under  the  auspices  of 
Ford  Hall.  The  Folks  had  within  their  own  num- 
ber competent  teachers  who  would  undertake  such 
work,  it  was  suggested.  On  the  other  hand,  others 
desired  to  organize  investigations  and  surveys  by 
the  Folks  themselves  into  civic  conditions  which 
bore  with  a  specially  galling  yoke  upon  the  people 
who  were  the  majority  of  the  Ford  Hall  audience. 
Such  work,  it  was  felt,  would  have  a  value  far 
above  that  of  the  ordinary  "sociological  study." 

The  matter  was  discussed.  On  the  od  i  hand,  it 
was  urged,  ample  facilities  were  already  provided 
in  Boston  for  cultural  work  of  all  grades.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  was  urged  with  equal  force, 
sociological  surveys  of  the  nature  suggested,  how- 
ever sympathetic  they  might  be,  would  not  have 
the  supervision  of  experts  in  such  work  and  would 


THE  TOWN  MEETING  57 

hence  possibly  be  biased  and  unfair.  The  Town 
Meeting  plan  was  the  suggested  compromise. 

It  was  not  at  first  called  a  Town  Meeting.  The 
plan  agreed  upon  was  that  of  a  deliberative  body 
organized  to  study  intensively  the  practical  aspects 
of  the  larger  questions  presented  in  Ford  Hall  Sun- 
day nights.  But  Ford  Hall  was  intensely  demo- 
cratic, not  simply  professionally  so.  Its  legislative 
body  must  be  called  by  the  most  democratic  name 
known.  Of  course  in  New  England  therefore  it 
could  only  be  called  a  town  meeting.  The  Ford 
Hall  Town  Meeting  was  born  and  named. 

But  while  it  is  democratic  and  intensely  so,  it  is 
a  town  meeting  only  in  its  name  and  in  the  names 
of  its  ofEcials.  It  is  organized  like  a  legislature 
with  committees  appropriate  to  the  subjects  likely 
to  come  before  the  body.  It  further  assumes  to 
itself  the  legislative  powers  of  any  deliberative 
body  within  Massachusetts,  whether  state,  city  or 
town.  So  the  measures  brought  before  it  are 
entitled  an  act,  an  ordinance,  or  a  resolution;  not 
indifferently,  but  as  the  citizen  who  introduces 
the  measure  feels  his  suggested  remedy  for  civic 
ills  lies  within  the  domain  of  state,  municipal,  or 
town  activity.  Itself  an  educative  process,  don't 
you  see? 

The  officers  of  the  Town  Meeting  are  a  Moder- 
ator, a  Clerk,  and  a  Sergeant-at-arms.  They  are 
elected  by  preferential  ballot  at  the  beginning  of 
each  season.  The  committees  are  selected  by  a 
nominating    committee    chosen    from    the    Town 


58  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

Meeting,  but  the  chairman  of  each  committee  is 
appointed  by  the  Moderator  from  such  committees 
so  selected. 

The  expenses  of  the  Town  Meeting  are  met  by 
a  voluntary,  self-assessed  income  tax  collected  at 
each  meeting.  It  has  not  needed  large  funds,  and 
this  method  has  been  found  ample  for  all  demands. 
The  amounts  found  in  the  tax  envelopes  —  one 
cent,  two  cents,  five  cents  —  themselves  often  tell 
their  own  story.  Many  times  envelopes  are  re- 
turned, sealed  it  is  true,  but  with  no  enclosure  but 
a  brief  line,  "out  of  work."  The  envelopes  are  not 
signed,  and  there  is  no  record  kept  of  individual 
payments;  only  the  citizen  himself  knows  how 
much  he  assessed  himself,  but  it  is  sure  each  con- 
tribution means  some  deprivation  to  the  giver. 

The  name  citizen  is  a  meaningful  one  to 
our  Town  Meeting  Folks.  The  Declaration  of 
Citizenship  is  simple: 

''I  do  solemnly  declare  that  I  will  strive  to  ad- 
vance the  common  good  and  the  Commonwealth 
of  Ford  Hall   by   all   means  in   my  power." 
But   it    is    not    taken   lightly.     The    citizens    take 
themselves  and  the  functions  of  the  Town  Meeting 
very  seriously.     They   are  in  earnest.     Every  one 
of    them    knows,    intimately    and    personally,    the 
sorrows     of    the     submerged.     They     speak    from 
heart  knowledge,  not  from  book  knowledge.     They 
are  desperately  anxious  for  better  life  and  living. 
Hardly  a  one   of  them  who  is  not  from  his  little 
giving  to  those  who  have  less.     When  they  discuss 


THE  TOWN  MEETING  59 

life,  they  are  speaking  of  those  things  they  know. 
When,  for  instance,  a  bill  is  introduced  providing  for 
better  sanitation  in  tenements,  they  discuss  the 
question  from  the  standpoint  of  knowledge.  Many 
of  them  live  in  the  tenements.  They  know  con- 
gestion intimately,  personally.  Wlien  immigration 
is  discussed,  those  who  landed  but  a  short  time 
before  talk  of  things  they  know.  Is  a  literacy 
test  proposed  .f^  They  think  of  their  brothers  and 
cousins  who  did  not  come  when  they  did,  but  who 
are  coming,  please  God,  when  the  skies  are  but 
a  little  kinder. 

One  evening  the  bill  under  discussion  was  a 
measure  outlining  a  scheme  of  unemployment  insur- 
ance. A  stranger  happened  in,  one  of  these  smug- 
faced  men  who  know  everything.  He  had  heard 
of  Ford  Hall,  but  this  was  the  first  meeting,  up- 
stairs or  down,  he  had  attended.  The  proponent 
of  the  bill  based  his  argument  in  support  of 
his  bill  upon  the  extent  of  unemployment.  It 
happened  that  he  was  out  of  work, —  his  children 
were  hungry, —  he  knew  what  he  was  talking 
about.  He  had  hardly  sat  down  when  the  stranger 
addressed  the  meeting.  He  announced  the  doctrine 
so  zealously  held  by  many, —  any  one  could  get 
work  if  he  wanted  it.  He  had  always  had  a  job. 
He  could  always  get  a  job. 

WTien  he  sat  down,  the  fireworks  began.  One 
after  another  of  the  citizens  told  the  things  he 
knew.  Many  of  them  were  out  of  work,  could  not 
get  work,   were  desperate  because  of  their  needs. 


60  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

Unemployment  was  to  them  not  an  academic 
theory,  it  was  a  hideous  fact.  Mr.  Stranger  was 
surprised,  to  say  the  least.  Whether  his  theories 
were  revised  or  not,  he  got  some  new  points  of 
view. 

The  relation  of  the  Town  Meeting  to  the  Sunday- 
night  Meetings  will  be  made  more  obvious  by  a 
brief  reference  to  two  or  three  actual  parallel 
happenings  in  the  meetings  themselves. 

One  Sunday  night  a  Jewish  Rabbi,  talking  on 
The  New  Morality,  said:  "We  used  to  think 
poverty  was  always  an  expression  of  laziness.  Now 
we  know  it  may  be  altogether  due  to  unemployment 
or  sickness  or  social  neglect  of  duty.  We  are 
beginning  to  understand  that  if  we  gave  more 
justice,  we  would  not  have  to  practice  so  much 
charity."  In  the  question  period  which  followed 
appeared  this:  "Can  you  tell  us  what  to  do  with 
the  unemployed  in  New  York,  and  isn't  it  wrong 
to  send  money  to  Belgium  instead  of  to  them.'^" 
The  question  was  answered  in  these  words:  "If 
I  knew  what  to  do,  I  would  do  it  for  the  unem- 
ployed in  Boston;  unfortunately  I  do  not.  It 
might  be  possible  for  the  State  to  create  work  for 
them." 

This  was  the  subject  in  the  large  at  Ford  Hall 
of  a  Sunday  night.  The  question  period  indicated 
the  thought  of  the  speaker's  hearers  concerning 
that  subject.  Soon  after,  a  bill  was  introduced 
in  the  Town  Meeting  providing  for  a  system  of 
unemployment  insurance.     It   was   regarded  as  of 


THE  TOWN  MEETING  61 

such  vital  importance  that  it  was  referred  to  a 
special  committee.  This  committee  agreed  upon 
the  principle  but  presented  two  reports,  providing 
for  the  necessary  funds  in  different  ways.  Don't 
you  see  the  connection.^  Up-stairs  the  general 
subject  was  discussed.  The  speaker  was  questioned, 
to  be  sure,  but  later  in  Town  Meeting  the  thought 
of  Ford  Hall  took  the  form  of  a  practical  bill  for 
carrying  into  effect  the  principles  urged.  It  is 
indeed  a  school  in  the  Theory  and  Practice  of 
Democracy. 

Margaret  Slattery  said  one  Sunday  night:  "How 
I  long  for  a  day  when  the  front  of  the  public  library 
will  be  crowded  with  small  boys  waiting  for  it  to 
open!  Did  you  ever  see  that?  I  haven't.  But  I 
have  seen  them  so  in  front  of  the  movies.'*  "Com- 
mercialized pleasure  is  our  sin."  A  questioner 
asked  her:  "Do  you  think  a  municipal  theater, 
with  educational  features,  charging  the  same 
prices  as  the  ordinary  theater,  would  succeed?" 
She  answered:  "I  haven't  any  very  great  faith 
in  municipal  management  of  things  of  that  sort. 
What  I  want  to  see  is  a  group  of  people  in  a 
neighborhood  demand  that  things  shall  be  straight." 
The  Town  Meeting  last  winter  considered,  among 
other  bills,  one  for  municipal  concerts  on  Boston 
Common,  one  to  allow  Sunday  ball  games,  if  no 
paid  players  were  used  or  admission  fees  charged^ 
and  another  providing  for  an  official  board  of 
censorship  for  all  shows,  motion  picture  shows 
included. 


62  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

Another  illustration:  Leslie  Willis  Sprague  asked 
one  Sunday  night,  when  he  was  speaking  to  the 
subject  "Shall  Democracy  Endure?":  "Shall  the 
doors  be  closed?  Shall  we  say  to  the  people  of 
Southern  and  Eastern " Europe,  'You  cannot  come 
here  any  more'?  ...  I  am  frank  to  say  that  I 
do  not  wish  the  gates  ever  closed.  ..."  He 
went  on  to  discuss  the  distribution  of  immigration 
and  at  the  very  next  session  of  the  Town  Meeting 
a  bill  providing  for  better  distribution  of  immigra- 
tion was  discussed  by  citizens,  among  others,  born 
in  Hungary,  Russia,  Ireland,  Roumania,  France, 
Germany,  and  England!  So  when  the  literacy  test 
bill  was  under  discussion  citizens  whose  own  fathers 
and  mothers,  whose  own  brothers  and  sisters, 
possibly,  would  be  affected  by  such  restrictions, 
agreed  from  the  heart  as  well  as  the  head. 

One  final  illustration:  Walter  Rauschenbusch 
said:  "Democracy  is  not  simply  political,  but 
must  have  an  economic  basis,  and  without  that  the 
political  and  social  and  even  religious  democracy 
will  gradually  become  a  form  without  a  substance." 
The  question  was  asked:  "Can  you  cite  the  ex- 
ample of  a  large  and  successful  business  that  is 
democratically  managed?"  He  referred  the  ques- 
tioner to  societies  in  Europe.  The  Town  Meeting 
had  an  interim  committee  at  work  all  summer  plan- 
ning for  a  cooperative  enterprise  for  the  Ford  Hall 
Folks. 

Nor  are  the  citizens  content  to  let  their  ac- 
tivities stop  with  their  meetings  in  Kingsley  Hall. 


THE  TOWN  MEETING  63 

Through  committees,  they  have  contributed  to 
actual  civic  betterment  in  numerous  cases,  and  they 
are  only  just  beginning  along  those  lines. 

The  meetings  are  governed  by  rules  adopted  by 
the  Town  Meeting,  and  which  were  legislative  rules 
modified  to  suit  the  case.  Of  course  these  rules 
and  parliamentary  practice  generally  are  followed, 
but  not  slavishly  or  too  technically.  Wliile  the  value 
of  parliamentary  drill  is  recognized,  yet  the  sub- 
stance is  regarded  as  of  more  value  than  the  form. 
Getting  at  the  truth  is  the  passion  at  the  Town 
Meeting,  as  it  is  in  the  Sunday-night  Meetings 
up-stairs. 

Such  is  the  Town  Meeting.  It  is  democratic, 
intense,  powerful.  Sometimes  the  oratory  is  terrify- 
ing, some  of  the  reasoning  is  crude.  But  life  itself 
is  full  of  raw,  crude,  unpleasant  facts.  The  dis- 
cussions are  elemental,  fundamental.  So  is  the  life 
of  the  citizens  of  the  Town  Meeting. 

The  essential  power  of  the  Town  Meeting  does 
not,  however,  grow  out  of  the  peculiar  nature  of 
its  citizenship.  Ford  Hall  is  cosmopolitan,  and 
so  is  the  Town  Meeting.  The  elements  of  which 
Ford  Hall  and  the  Town  Meeting  are  composed 
are  peculiar,  but  they  are  peculiar  in  themselves, 
not  to  themselves.  Every  community  has  its 
strata,  its  lines  of  cleavage.  They  may  be  different 
from  those  found  in  Ford  Hall;  but  they  are  there. 
The  task  before  each  community  is  to  bring  its 
component  parts  into  a  more  perfect  blending, — 
not  Ford  Hall's  blending,  but  its  own.     This  task 


64  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

may  be  all  the  more  difficult  because  the  differences 
to  be  reconciled  may  be  more  subtle  and  obscure. 
Keener  analysis  may  be  necessary,  but  the  essential 
problem  is  the  same,  whatever  the  community. 
Get  people  together,  find  the  common  denominator, 
and  the  equation  is  started  toward  its  solution. 

The  latest  development  of  the  Ford  Hall  idea  is 
the  Foro  Italiano.  Thirty-seven  nationalities  are 
to  be  found  within  greater  Boston.  Seventy 
thousand  Italians  live  there,  of  whom  forty  thou- 
sand are  to  be  found  within  the  North  End.  North 
Square  on  any  Sunday  afternoon  shows  literally 
thousands  of  Italians  with  no  place  to  go.  Why 
should  they  not  come  to  Ford  Hall? 

So  the  Italian  Forum  was  inaugurated.  As  on 
Sunday  evening,  the  hall  is  packed.  Twelve 
hundred  eager  men  and  women, — most  of  them 
men, —  gather  to  hear  discussed  those  questions 
which  appeal  to  them  as  Italian-Americans.  Every- 
thing is  in  Italian,  except  Mr.  Coleman's  presiding. 
An  associate  chairman  sits  beside  him,  and  he  is 
kept  in  touch  with  the  salient  points  in  the  address 
and  in  the  questions  and  answers. 

What  are  the  motives  back  of  the  Italian  Forum? 
The  same  which  actuate  all  the  other  activities 
of  Ford  Hall.  To  bring  men  and  women  together 
to  discuss  the  questions  common  to  the  lives  of 
all,  is  to  bring  better  understanding  and  tolerance 
into  those  lives,  is  to  help  fit  them  for  a  better 
living  together.  Of  course,  it  will  be  better  when 
these  Italian  Ford  Hall-ites  gather  in  an  English 


THE  TOWN  MEETING  65 

forum  and  listen  to  such  discussions  in  English. 
In  the  meantime,  however,  they  don't  understand 
English!  Shall  they  be  debarred  from  such  dis- 
cussion until  the  barriers  of  a  foreign  speech  are 
removed?  When  they  have  achieved  their  English, 
they  will  also  have  acquired  the  Ford  Hall  Idea. 

The  management  of  the  Foro  Italiano  is  in  the 
hands  of  a  representative  committee  of  Italian  and 
American  men  and  women.  The  Baptist  Social 
Union  supplied  the  necessary  funds  and  gave  the 
use  of  Ford  Hall. 

Experiment.^  Yes,  but  the  first  meeting  dem- 
onstrated the  soundness  of  the  idea,  the  essential 
sanity  of  the  suggestion.  The  Ford  Hall  idea  is 
thoroughly  implanted  in  the  hearts  and  minds  of 
Boston's  Italian  colony. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  OPEN  FORUM  MOVEMENT 

By  Harold  Marshall 

THE  Open  Forum  Movement  is  founded 
upon  the  discovery  that  America  is  not 
merely  a  geographic  term,  but  a  symbol 
of  the  new  and  wonderful  way  in  which  God  is 
coming  into  life. 

The  outstanding  fact  of  the  nineteenth  century 
is  the  rise  of  democracy,  (and  in  America,  as  Walter 
Rauschenbusch  says,  "Democracy  is  a  holy  word,") 
and  an  effort  to  express  the  holiness  of  humanity. 
A  forum  is  democracy  talking  to  itself  about  its 
own  affairs,  and  trying  to  give  expression  to  the 
religion  of  the  common  life  in  community  terms. 
All  thoughtful  people  are  concerned  over  the 
present  situation.  It  has  become  increasingly 
apparent  that  not  only  the  sectarian  organization 
of  religion,  but  the  sectarian  interpretation  of 
religion,  is  of  the  past.  This  is  not  because  the 
work  of  the  sectarian  churches  has  been  ill  done, 
but  well  done.  It  was  a  thousand  years'  task  for 
the  Catholic  Church  to  implant  in  the  breast  of 
Western  barbarians  the  instinct  of  self -subjection 
to  the  spiritual  order  of  life.     It  has  taken  sectarian 


THE  OPEN  FORUM  MOVEMENT  67 

Protestantism  four  hundred  years  to  win  for  this 
acquired  spiritual  instinct  opportunity  to  function 
into  individual  freedom  of  thought  and  personal 
liberty  of  conscience.  The  decadence  of  sectarian- 
ism is  not  devolution  but  evolution.  The  individu- 
alistic church  is  coming  to  decrepitude  through 
fulfillment,  not  defeat.  It  is  being  outgrown, 
because  man  is  outgrowing  himself.  Religion,  too, 
is  growing  out  of  words  into  deeds.  The  passion 
for  righteousness  is  supplanting  the  passions  of 
controversy,  and  the  craving  for  service  has 
superseded  the  scheme  of  salvation. 

"The  great  revolution  that  is  transforming  society 
under  our  eyes,"  says  a  recent  writer,  "is  the 
substitution  of  social  salvation  for  individual 
salvation.  Man  is  to  be  saved,  not  by  escaping 
from  the  society  of  his  fellows,  but  he  is  to  be  saved 
in  company  with  his  fellows."  The  problem  of 
social  salvation  creates  the  task  of  community 
religion,  not  to  be  evaded  because  of  its  difficulty. 
A  reunion  of  Church  and  State  would  be  a  mis- 
fortune, but  a  permanent  separation  of  religion 
from  life  would  be  a  disaster.  The  community 
religion  of  to-morrow  is  going  to  lay  a  new  and 
compelling  hold  upon  life,  because  it  expresses 
the  aspirations  of  the  best  life  of  the  age,  and  the 
ideals  of  that  spiritual  democracy  that  has  out- 
grown alike  the  notion  of  an  earth-inheriting  class 
and  a  heaven-inheriting  caste. 

The  Open  Forum  Movement  is  so  far  the  most 
definite  and  coherent  expression  of  this  socialization 


68  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

of  religion.  Like  other  great  movements,  it  had 
comparatively  small  beginnings,  and  its  pioneers 
did  not  realize  the  significance  of  their  work.  Its 
development  is  a  splendid  illustration  of  the  fact 
that  when  any  individual  does  his  best,  he  does 
more  and  better  than  he  sees.        j 

Wlien  Peter  Cooper  founded  the  Cooper  Institute 
in  1854,  "Devoted  to  the  instruction  and  improve- 
ment of  the  working  classes,"  he  did  not  foresee 
the  great  Sunday-evening  Meetings  that  Cooper 
Union  developed  years  afterwards.  Those  who 
established  these  courses  had  no  notion  that  on  a 
certain  night,  George  W.  Coleman  of  Boston  would 
be  in  the  audience,  and  be  fired  with  a  purpose  to 
do  something  similar  for  his  own  city.  When  he 
had  succeeded  in  starting  a  Sunday-evening  Meeting 
in  Ford  Hall,  with  an  audience  of  only  a  few  hun- 
dred people,  nobody  would  have  ventured  to  call 
it  "a  spiritual  Plymouth  Rock,"  or  to  predict  that 
it  would  not  only  develop  into  a  great  and  influen- 
tial institution  in  itself,  but  become  the  inspiration 
and  prototype  of  multitudes  of  others. 

The  essential  democracy  of  this  movement  is 
evidenced  by  the  wide  dissimilarity  of  origin  and 
the  equally  great  variety  of  types  among  the 
various  independent  forums.  First  in  point  of 
time  and  significance  are  what  may  be  described 
as  the  philanthropic  forums,  like  Cooper  Union 
and  Ford  Hall,  where  endowed  institutions  seek 
in  this  way  to  serve  the  life  and  the  community 
of  which  they  are  a  part.     Their  success,  and  still 


1 


THE  OPEN  FORUM  MOVEMENT  69 

more,  their  wide  human  sympathy  and  their  cour- 
age in  presenting  unpopular  causes,  have  gone  far 
to  answer  the  question  whether  or  not  endowed 
institutions  can  keep  step  with  democracy. 

Among  those  who  first  caught  the  spirit  and 
purpose  of  Ford  Hall  were  socially-minded  min- 
isters and  laymen  of  various  churches.  Some  of 
them  soon  began  experimenting  among  their  own 
constituencies.  Sometimes  the  lead  was  taken  by 
men  of  conservative  ecclesiastical  aflBliations,  like 
John  W.  Ross  of  Buffalo,  Paul  Moore  Strayer 
of  Rochester,  or  Doctor  Lyon  and  Doctor  Hogue 
of  Baltimore.  Some  of  them  have  developed  in 
centers  of  population;  others  in  suburban  commun- 
ities like  Melrose,  Massachusetts,  or  small  towns 
like  Weymouth,  Massachusetts,  or  more  rural 
communities  like  Raymond,  New  Hampshire,  but 
always  expressing  the  new  attempt  of  the  Church 
to  apply  religion  to  life,  and  the  new  consciousness 
of  social  responsibility  that  is  everywhere  manifest- 
ing itself  among  church  people.  Other  forums  have 
originated  among  cooperative  groups  of  churches, 
like  those  in  Newton,  Massachusetts,  and  Stoneham, 
Massachusetts;  while  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  forums,  such  as  at  Manchester,  New 
Hampshire,  and  Attleboro,  Massachusetts,  are  di- 
rectly maintained  by  institutions  that  are  them- 
selves supported  by  churches   and  church  people. 

Another  type,  that  has  had  its  right  to  the  forum 
name  challenged,  is  that  which  makes  its  appeal 
to  some  racial  or  religious  element  in  the  com- 


70  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

muiiity,  like  the  Ford  Hall  Italian  Forum,  or  the 
Russian  Forum  of  the  Church  of  All  Nations  in 
New  York,  or  that  conducted  by  the  Union  Park 
Synagogue  in  the  South  End  of  Boston  and  the 
Common  Cause  Society  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
church  in  Boston.  When  we  remember,  however, 
that  among  the  newly  arrived  people  of  any  race 
are  mutual  differences,  prejudices,  and  misunder- 
standings, not  less  than  those  existing  among 
ourselves,  it  will  be  realized  that  the  forum  has  a 
great  field  of  utility  here,  and  possibly  no  other 
type  of  meeting  will  lead  more  directly  and  help- 
fully toward  democracy. 

Another  variety  is  that  which  aims  at  economic 
education  under  the  auspices  of  some  more  or  less 
distinctly  organized  group,  such  as  the  School  for 
Social  Science  in  Lorimer  Hall,  Boston,  of  which 
Miss  Louise  Adams  Grout  has  been  the  moving 
spirit.  Such  a  forum  serves  not  only  to  extend 
the  ideas  of  its  own  group,  but  to  clarify  and 
crystallize  their  own  thinking  as  well. 

It  remains  to  speak  of  what  may  well  become  the 
ultimate  type,  the  distinctively  community  move- 
ment, which  aims  to  include  and  represent  all  classes 
and  conditions,  and  seeks  to  become  a  center  of 
community  education  and  inspiration.  Sometimes 
this  has  been  a  natural  evolution,  as  in  Melrose, 
Massachusetts;  sometimes  it  is  an  intended  crea- 
tion, as  in  Brockton,  Massachusetts,  or  Lawrence, 
Massachusetts.  A  modification  of  this  community 
form,    which   is   full   of    possibility,   is   the    school 


THE  OPEN  FORUM  MOVEMENT  71 

center  type,  of  which  three  have  been  already 
estabhshed  in  Boston  under  the  splendid  leader- 
ship of  Mrs.  Eva  Wliiting  White,  with  promise  of 
nearly  a  dozen  more,  as  soon  as  plans  can  be  made 
for  their  institution. 

It  will  be  easily  understood  that  one  of  the 
penalties  of  pioneering  in  this  work  has  been  a 
constant  and  growing  demand  to  help  new  move- 
ments in  widely  scattered  communities.  Those 
who  are  already  giving  themselves  largely  to  their 
own  local  work  have  found  it  physically  impossible 
to  respond  to  all  of  these  appeals,  much  as  they 
would  have  liked  to  do  so.  This  has  made  it  neces- 
sary to  establish  two  related  organizations,  defi- 
nitely devoted  to  the  task  of  forum  extension:  the 
Ford  Hall  Foundation  and  the  Co-operative  Forum 
Bureau. 

The  Ford  Hall  Foundation  was  incorporated  in 
1914  under  the  laws  of  the  State  of  Massachusetts, 
and  consists  of  George  W.  Coleman,  Director; 
William  Horton  Foster,  Secretary;  John  K.  Allen, 
Treasurer;  and  W.  V.  Bottom,  Richard  C.  Cabot, 
Louis  A.  Chandler,  Thomas  Dreier,  William  C. 
Ewing,  Everett  O.  Fisk,  George  B.  Gallup,  Harold 
Marshall,  and  Felix  Vorenberg.  Its  object  is  to 
spread  information  concerning  the  meaning  and 
value  of  the  public  forum,  and  to  assist  local 
committees  to  develop  such  institutions  in  their 
own  communities.  Its  oflBcers  and  members  are 
constantly  receiving  calls  from  individuals,  groups, 
and    organizations,    and   have   already    assisted    in 


72  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE   MAKING 

establishing  new  forums   in   nine   or   ten   different 
States. 

One  of  the  first  questions  that  confronts  every 
forum  group  is  how  to  obtain  speakers.  To  help 
answer  this  question,  the  Co-operative  Forum 
Bureau  has  been  established,  with  a  managing 
committee  consisting  of  Harold  Marshall,  Chairman; 
Mabel  B.  Ury,  Secretary;  and  George  W.  Coleman, 
Mary  C.  Crawford,  Elmer  S.  Forbes,  and  Charles 
Zueblin.  It  undertakes  to  suggest  to  local  com- 
mittees those  who  will  best  meet  their  conditions 
and  needs,  and  to  work  out  the  problem  of  how  to 
utilize  available  speakers  to  the  best  advantage 
and  at  the  minimum  traveling  expense.  It  has 
already  proved  its  usefulness,  and  will  grow  in 
efficiency  as  it  gathers  experience. 

It  is  becoming  more  and  more  apparent  that  the 
social  problems  are  the  insistent  ones  of  our  day, 
and  must  find  their  solution  not  merely  in  terms  of 
economics,  but  in  a  redefinition  and  reemphasis 
of  moral  and  spiritual  values  as  well.  Everywhere 
this  new  social  interest  is  putting  a  new  stress 
upon  individuals  and  organizations.  Those  who 
have  seen  and  felt  this  most  are  looking  to  the 
open  forums  for  a  more  adequate  expression  of  the 
spiritual  side  of  democracy. 

These  gatherings  have  become  increasingly  repre- 
sentative, until  in  the  older  ones  they  include  every 
element,  —  political,  social,  racial,  and  religious. 
The  meetings  themselves,  though  entirely  free  from 
theological  or  sectarian  expression,  show  an  increas- 


THE  OPEN  FORUM  MOVEMENT  73 

ing  tendency  to  become  religious  in  a  social  sense. 
The  working  creed  of  the  Open  Forum  is  "The 
belief  that  we  must  all  move  together  toward  the 
solution  of  the  successive  problems  of  mankind, 
through  the  dedication  of  each  to  all,  the  devotion 
of  all  to  each,  and  our  common  consecration  to  all 
the  nobler  ends  of  life." 

Believers  in  this  religion  of  democracy  are  trying 
all  sorts  of  experiments,  inside  and  outside  of  the 
churches,  to  find  and  develop  effective  machinery 
with  which  to  achieve  social  salvation.  It  is  too 
soon  to  say  what  share  the  Open  Forum  Movement 
will  have  in  this  great  endeavor.  It  is  not  too  soon 
to  say  that  it  is  dominated  by  this  ideaL  and  con- 
secrated to  this  effort.  The  spirit  of  the  Open 
Forum  is  the  spirit  that  has  changed  religious 
emphasis  from  selfish  other  world  individualism 
to  an  increasingly  heroic  endeavor  to  bring  in  the 
kingdom  of  God  among  men.  It  is  inspired  by  the 
religion  of  the  common  life.  It  may  yet  develop 
the  church  of  community  life. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

ONE  OF  BOSTON'S  INSTITUTIONS 
By  A.  J.  Philpott 

IN  1838  Emerson  said:  "The  time  is  coming 
when  all  men  will  see  that  the  gift  of  God  to 
the  soul  is  not  a  vaunting,  overpowering, 
excluding  sanctity,  but  a  sweet,  natural  goodness, 
a  goodness  like  thine  and  mine,  and  that  so  invites 
thine  and  mine  to  be  and  to  grow." 

As  far  as  Boston  was  concerned,  the  time  had 
come  when  Ford  Hall  was  necessary,  and  that  is 
why  it  became  one  of  Boston's  institutions  almost  in 
a  night.  It  was  in  some  measure  a  fulfillment  of 
that  prophecy  of  Emerson's  in  1838.  For  it  had 
real  vitality  at  the  start  —  the  kind  of  vitality  that 
thrives  on  what  it  gives.  It  has  given  much  and 
it  has  thrived  accordingly. 

It  has  been  an  influence  of  the  best  kind  because 
there  has  been  a  healthy  stimulus  in  its  plan  and 
procedure.  It  has  not  had  to  aspire  to  democracy 
for  it  was  founded  in  the  truest  kind  of  democratic 
spirit,  —  that  spirit  of  democracy  which  is  never 
arrogant  and  is  courteous  and  reasonable  toward 
those  who  are  afflicted  with  different  ideas  and 
opinions. 


ONE  OP  BOSTON'S  INSTITUTIONS         75 

The  thing  had  happened  in  Boston  that  had 
been  happening  in  all  our  cities  since  the  Civil 
War,  and  that  happens  in  every  community  into 
which  is  poured  a  continuous  stream  of  new  life 
from  outside  sources.  The  old  life  was  satisfied 
with  itself,  with  its  own  isms  and  schisms  and  social 
conventions,  and  with  its  own  methods  of  doing  and 
thinking, —  as  it  had  some  right  to  be.  It  was  not 
positively  opposed  to  the  newcomers,  but  it  was 
negatively  indifferent  to  their  aspirations.  The 
old  life  was  satisfied  in  its  material  prosperity  and 
in  a  kind  of  isolation  that  compelled  it  to  exist  in 
that  ever  narrowing  environment  which  breeds 
intellectual  stagnation  and  causes  loss  of  virility. 

This  figurative  explanation  does  not  tell  the 
whole  story,  but  it  contains  the  germs  of  a  thought 
that  had  been  growing  in  the  minds  of  many 
thinking  people  for  years. 

Ford  Hall  was  inevitable,  although  it  was  not 
welcomed  with  any  wild  acclaim  at  the  beginning. 
If  it  had  been  its  career  might  have  been  short 
and  its  influence  as  brief  as  are  all  of  those  influences 
which  quickly  stir  the  passions  and  emotions  of 
people.  And  Boston's  emotions  had  been  exploited 
more  than  once. 

But  there  were  three  things  that  gave  Ford 
Hall  an  immediate  standing  and  the  hope  of 
continuity:  its  reasonableness,  its  understandable- 
ness,  and  the  ultimate  satisfaction  afforded  by  the 
"question  hour."  For  this  is  above  all  things  a 
questioning  age.     The  spirit  of  free  inquiry  is  more 


76  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE   MAKING 

rampant  in  the  world  to-day  than  ever  before. 
People  shun,  or  smile  at,  or  have  an  aversion  for, 
the  person  who  presumes  to  speak  ex  cathedra, — 
for  the  person  who  asserts  and  offers  neither  apology 
nor  explanation.  Although  people  are  still  fond  of 
illusions,  they  have  little  patience  with  masquerade. 

However,  it  took  the  courage  of  conviction  and 
something  of  prophetic  enthusiasm  to  launch  Ford 
Hall  on  the  cool  and  diverse  currents  of  Boston 
life.  But  once  launched,  it  was  found  that  it  would 
not  only  float  but  sail,  and  sail  well  with  its  own 
power  and  with  the  right  kind  of  a  captain  and 
crew,  especially  a  captain  who  knew  all  the  shoal 
places  and  understood  the  currents  of  that  life. 
And  so  after  a  "tryout"  of  a  season,  public  con- 
fidence in  the  new  craft  had  become  so  firmly 
established  that  she  had  a  full  passenger  list  at  all 
times,  and  all  classes  found  enjoyment  in  her 
sailing  qualities. 

So  much  for  metaphor.  Here  was  an  institution 
that  proposed  to  look  Truth  squarely  in  the  face, 
no  matter  who  uttered  the  truth.  But  the  person 
who  uttered  it  must  prove  it, —  must  not  get  away 
without  satisfying  those  who  may  have  doubts  or 
may  think  otherwise.  And  it  was  not  dedicated 
to  any  particular  kind  of  truth.  Therein  was  its 
greatest  appeal  to  the  lay  mind,  to  the  public 
at  large,  and  what  is  termed  "the  average  person.'* 

Ford  Hall  was  not  founded  on  a  philosophy  or 
a  theory.  It  was  founded  to  accommodate  the  broad 
spirit   of   human   inquiry   for   truth,   not   for   the 


ONE  OF  BOSTON'S  INSTITUTIONS         77 

protection  or  propaganda  of  any  ism  or  schism.  It 
just  filled  a  want  in  the  minds  of  people  to-day 
who  want  to  know, —  without  any  frills, —  the  why 
and  wherefore  of  things,  and  who  want  to  see  if 
Pilate's  question  can't  be  answered:  What  is 
truth? 

The  men  and  women  in  counting-rooms,  and 
stores  and  shops  and  factories,  and  many  who  were 
not  obliged  to  labor  in  such  ways,  had  been  asking 
questions  for  years,  and  the  answers  of  special 
pleaders  did  not  always  satisfy  them.  But  Ford 
Hall  gave  some  of  these  thinkers  and  questioners 
in  the  mass  of  the  population  a  chance.  It  became 
a  clearing-house  for  the  inquisitive.  It  was  a  new 
kind  of  inquisition, —  the  inquisition  of  democracy 
in  which  the  inquisitors  were  the  plain  people.  It 
filled  a  want  because  it  was  vital,  and  because 
most  of  the  questions  discussed  were  questions 
that  concerned  the  actual  life  and  the  hopes  of 
the  people.  And  it  satisfied  the  American  spirit, 
because  its  democracy  was  both  courteous  and 
unaffected;    it  was  just  plain  common  sense. 

That  is  why  the  press  generally  supported  the 
Ford  Hall  movement.  The  people  of  the  press 
are  instinctively  sensitive  to  the  vital  movements 
of  the  times,  especially  to  the  movements  which 
stir  and  appeal  to  the  masses.  The  people  of  the 
press  sense  quickly  a  new  trend  in  the  thought  and 
feeling  of  the  public.  They  are  consciously  or 
unconsciously  the  "watchdogs"  of  the  community, 
and  like  the  dog  they  "smell"  of  a  thing  for  some 


78  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  IVIAKING 

time  before  they  even  "nibble"  at  it.  They  first 
"smelled"  of  the  Ford  Hall  movement,  then  they 
"nibbled"  at  it;  and  finally, —  well  the  people  of 
the  press  became  its  fast  friends.  Not  only  the 
secular  or  religious  press  generally  in  and  around 
Boston,  but  the  national  papers  and  magazines 
caught  the  spirit  of  the  thing  and  interpreted  it 
largely  through  the  personality  of  the  founder, 
George  W.  Coleman.     It  was  a  great  victory. 

But  after  all,  one  of  the  finest  tributes  to  the 
worth  of  Ford  Hall, —  to  what  it  meant  to  a  great 
many  people, —  was  the  famous  "Birthday  Book," 
consisting  of  "testimonies"  and  "appreciations" 
of  Ford  Hall  and  the  man  in  whom  the  Ford 
Hall  spirit  is  so  adequately  symbolized,  George  W. 
Coleman.  That  came  on  the  fifth  birthday  of  the 
Ford  Hall  movement,  and  it  was  the  gift  to  Mr. 
Coleman  of  those  who  had  experienced  something 
of  the  spiritual  uplift  and  stimulus  which  Ford  Hall 
had  afforded  for  five  years.  In  that  book  were 
epitomized  the  many  reasons  why  Ford  Hall  has 
become  a  Boston  Institution. 


CHAPTER  IX 

AN  ACTUAL  MELTING  POT 

By  Rolfe  Cobleigh 

THE  most  significant  fact  in  the  Ford  Hall 
movement  is  its  realization  of  American 
ideals.  The  Ford  Hall  Meeting  in  spirit 
is  a  democracy.  Democracy  is  the  fundamental 
purpose  of  the  United  States.  The  process  of 
achieving  that  purpose  is  well  expressed  in  Israel 
Zangwill's  phrase,  "The  Melting  Pot."  As  far 
as  that  process  has  been  successful,  it  has  not  fused 
the  various  racial,  religious,  and  intellectual  ele- 
ments into  a  mass  with  the  elements  no  longer 
distinguishable,  but  it  has  brought  those  elements 
into  harmonious  and  cooperative  relationship.  In 
the  early  days  of  the  republic,  the  processes  of  the 
"Melting  Pot"  proceeded  with  comparative  ease 
because  the  elements  making  up  the  majority  of  the 
population  were  similar.  But  the  rising  tide  of 
immigration  has  swept  into  congested  areas  of  our 
great  cities  so  many  people  so  unlike  each  other  in 
race,  language,  religion,  historic  background,  and 
heritage  of  custom  and  prejudice  that  many  have 
not  really  entered  the  "Melting  Pot,"  but  have 
remained  in  little  Ghettos,  little  Italys,  and  other 


80  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

little  districts  like  the  lands  from  which  they  came. 
Because  of  superficial  differences,  groups  have  not 
only  failed  to  mix  and  cooperate,  but  have  con- 
tinued old-world  antagonisms.  Boston  is  one  of 
the  cities  in  which  this  has  long  been  a  serious 
problem.     Ford  Hall  is  helping  to  solve  it. 

In  studying  the  Ford  Hall  folks,  one  is  likely  to 
be  surprised  to  find  so  many  different  kinds  of 
people,  and  to  find  that  they  all  have  so  much  in 
common.  Here  indeed  is  an  actual  "Melting  Pot." 
The  very  diversity  of  the  Ford  Hall  folks  is  one  of 
their  valuable  assets.  But  their  most  valuable 
asset  is  the  spiritual  alchemy  of  democracy  that 
pervades  the  meetings.  To  that  all  respond.  In 
Ford  Hall,  German  meets  Briton  as  a  brother. 
Elsewhere  he  may  be  an  enemy.  In  Ford  Hall, 
Catholic  and  Protestant,  Jew  and  Mohammedan, 
Parsee,  Buddhist,  and  agnostic  unite  in  earnest 
search  for  the  truth.  Elsewhere  each  may  claim 
exclusive  monopoly  of  the  truth.  Socialist  and 
anarchist,  Republican  and  Democrat,  syndicalist 
and  trade  unionist  promote  the  common  weal. 
Elsewhere  they  may  be  waging  war  on  one  another. 
Those  who  attend  the  Ford  Hall  meetings  listen  to 
addresses  representing  the  most  radical  and  the 
most  widely  different  points  of  view.  They  have 
learned  to  listen  patiently,  attentively;  and  as  they 
have  listened,  they  have  discovered  that  there  are 
two  sides  to  every  question,  and  that  every  one 
may  learn  much  from  people  whose  views  differ 
from  his  own.     As  the  Ford  Hall  folks  have  learned 


AN  ACTUAL  MELTING  POT  81 

this  lesson  with  reference  to  the  speakers,  they  have 
applied  the  same  principle  to  those  who  sit  beside 
them.  They  have  learned  to  respect  the  opinions 
of  their  neighbors.  They  come  to  see  the  good  in 
their  neighbors,  and  gradually  have  developed  the 
spirit  of  good  will  and  good  fellowship. 

As  Jews  are  more  numerous  than  any  other  racial 
group  in  the  Ford  Hall  meetings,  it  has  been 
interesting  to  note  the  changed  attitude  of  Ford 
Hall  Jews  toward  Christians.  Some  of  them  came 
from  Russia,  and  the  cruel  persecution  of  Jews  by 
the  so-called  Christians  of  official  Russia  could 
hardly  fail  to  produce  deep-rooted  prejudice.  Many 
other  races  have  been  reared  in  an  atmosphere  of 
prejudice  against  the  Jew.  Freda  Rogolsky, —  by 
birth  a  Russian  Jewess,  now  a  patriotic  American, 
—  says  she  has  learned  that  when  her  Christian 
friends  go  to  their  church  and  she  goes  to  h>er 
synagogue,  they  worship  on  different  corners  of  the 
street,  but  they  travel  the  same  road  to  reach 
them, —  the  highway  of  righteousness.  Similar  dis- 
coveries have  been  made  by  other  Ford  Hall  Jews 
and  by  Ford  Hall  Christians,  who  need  this  vision 
as  much  as  the  Jews;  and  thus  the  respect  of  each 
for  their  neighbors  of  different  faith  has  greatly 
increased.  By  knowing  each  other,  prejudice  has 
decreased,  and  standing  together  on  common 
ground,  they  are  happy  to  join  forces  in  seeking 
the  ends  that  both  desire. 

As  one  looks  over  the  audience  in  Ford  Hall  on 
a  Sunday  evening,  one  can  hardly  fail  to  be  im- 


82  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

pressed  with  tli«  earnestness  and  eagerness  upon  the 
faces  turned  toward  the  platform.  The  common 
purposes  seem  to  be  the  search  for  truth  and  the 
demand  for  justice.  The  individuals  may  differ 
as  to  the  methods  that  should  be  employed,  but 
since  all  desire  the  same  ends,  it  is  easy  to  meet  in 
harmonious  relations  while  those  purposes  are  under 
discussion.  While  tolerance  and  consideration  for 
the  other  man's  point  of  view  has  a  restraining 
influence,  the  meetings  are  so  free  that  all  express 
themselves  with  perfect  frankness. 

The  spirit  of  the  meetings  is  the  spirit  of  the 
Chairman.  His  democracy,  his  frankness,  his 
fairness  have  led  the  way  in  creating  the  atmosphere 
which  is  characteristic  of  Ford  Hall.  His  leadership 
controls  the  meetings,  but  that  leadership  is  the 
leadership  of  democracy.  The  Chairman  uses  no 
gavel:  he  needs  none.  There  is  no  organization: 
none  is  needed.  There  are  no  rules  except  the  rule 
of  fair  play.  No  obligation  embarrasses  those  who 
attend  Ford  Hall  except  the  moral  obligations 
which  control  men  in  all  social  relations.  Thus 
in  this  little  democracy,  in  the  light  of  truth,  in 
the  warmth  of  brotherhood,  in  the  cooperation  of 
workers  for  the  common  weal,  the  processes  of  the 
"Melting  Pot"  continue. 

The  most  potent  influence  in  accomplishing  the 
results  that  have  been  accomplished  in  Ford  Hall 
has  been  the  spiritual  influence,  that  many  may 
not  recognize  or  understand,  but  which  is  always 
present.     Because  it  is  always  present,  Ford  Hall 


AN  ACTUAL  MELTING  POT  83 

succeeds  as  a  "Melting  Pot,"  while  other  institu- 
tions of  similar  purpose  but  lacking  the  spiritual 
element  have  failed.  This  influence  appeals  to 
one's  better  self  '  and  develops  character  as  the 
Ford  Hall  folks  are  inspired  to  higher  ideals  and 
impelled  to  greater  zeal  in  expressing  those  ideals 
in  life. 


CHAPTER  X 

DRAMATIC  INCIDENTS 

By  Mary  Caroline  Crawford 

THE  most  dramatic  incidents  at  Ford  Hall 
naturally  come  during  the  question  period. 
And  it  is  very  extraordinary,  when  one 
takes  into  account  the  fact  that  the  audience  then 
"gets  back"  at  the  speaker  practically  without  let 
or  hindrance,  that  these  incidents  are  so  seldom 
in  any  way  unpleasant. 

Once  very  early  in  the  movement  it  looked  for  just 
a  few  minutes  as  if  there  might  be  a  need  for  the 
blue-coated  officer  who  is  always  on  duty  for  the 
purpose  of  seeing  that  the  aisles  are  kept  clear 
and  the  public  safety  otherwise  safeguarded.  The 
night  alluded  to  was  when  Rabbi  Samuel  Schulman 
of  New  York  had  been  speaking  on  "What  the 
Jew  Has  Done  for  the  World  and  What  the  World 
Has  Done  to  the  Jew."  This  lecture  was  a  superb 
review  of  the  immense  contribution  which  Jews 
have  made  to  moral,  spiritual,  and  material  ad- 
vance everywhere;  and  there  was  no  bitterness, — 
though  bitterness  might  well  have  been  pardoned 
under  the  circumstances, —  in  the  speaker's   brief 


DRAMATIC  INCIDENTS  85 

reference  to  the  ungenerous  fashion  in  which  the 
world  has  repaid  the  Jew  for  his  various  services. 

Then  came  the  questions.  A  number  of  people 
asked  pertinent  but  perfectly  polite  and  proper 
questions  which  drew  out  still  further  the  vast 
fund  of  knowledge  which  Doctor  Schulman  possesses 
on  this  subject.  Presently  a  man  who  wore  the 
blue  coat  of  a  veteran  arose  and  said,  with  a  sneer: 

"What  have  the  Jews  ever  done  in  time  of  war 
for  the  countries  of  their  adoption.''" 

Doctor  Schulman's  eyes  flashed,  and  the  color 
mounted  high  under  his  swarthy  skin.  But  he 
controlled  himself  and  again  recounted  patiently 
the  services  rendered  by  the  Jews  during  the 
Revolutionary  War  and  quoted  some  well-known 
facts  and  figures  concerning  their  Civil  War  service. 
This  was  what  the  veteran  had  been  waiting  for. 

"Well,  I  was  in  the  Civil  War  myself,"  he  re- 
torted, "and  I  never  saw  them  except  in  the  sutler's 
department." 

While  Doctor  Schulman,  unable  longer  to  control 
himself,  was  declaring  hotly  that,  though  he  was 
glad  to  answer  questions,  he  would  not  sit  still  and 
hear  his  race  insulted,  the  veteran  slouched  out  of 
the  room  to  the  accompaniment  of  the  only  hisses 
that  have  ever  been  heard  at  a  Ford  Hall  Sunday 
Evening  Meeting.  The  people  who  attend  the 
Ford  Hall  Meetings  believe  devoutly  in  fair  play 
and,  that  night,  they  had  been  immensely  moved 
by  Doctor  Schulman's  praise  of  the  loyal  Jews  who 
helped  the  country  in  Washington's  time,  particu- 


86  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE   MAKING 

larly  Hyman  Solomon,  who  at  this  period  loaned 
the  nation  money  which  has  never  been  repaid. 
They  knew  from  their  own  reading,  too,  that  during 
the  Spanish  War  the  recruiting  offices  in  New 
York's  East  side  had  been  stormed  with  Jews 
anxious  to  enlist,  and  that  a  large  representation 
of  this  race  actually  went  to  the  front.  So  they 
hissed  with  a  will  the  questioner  who  asserted  that 
Jews  are  not  patriotic. 

Often  there  is  sparkling  repartee  between  speaker 
and  questioner.  On  a  night  when  the  late  Mrs. 
Ellen  Richards  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of 
Technology  had  made  a  splendid  plea  for  simpler 
living  and  higher  thinking,  there  came  the  question: 

"How  is  a  Russian  Jew,  engaged  in  pressing 
trousers  for  more  than  twelve  hours  a  day,  to  do 
any  high  thinking  .f^" 

Of  course  there  was  a  great  burst  of  applause 
at  this;  a  questioner  who  can  "stump"  the  speaker 
is  a  hero  at  Ford  Hall.  But  Mrs.  Richards  was 
not  "stumped." 

"When  I  did  housework,"  she  flashed  back,  "I 
used  to  put  in  my  best  thinking  while  resting  on 
my  iron." 

One  other  passage  of  wit  and  wisdom  occurred 
that  same  evening. 

"If  people  cannot  obtain  freedom  and  justice, 
how  can  they  be  happy  .f^"  questioned  a  most 
unhappy-looking  person  in  the  audience. 

"Our  fathers  found  happiness  in  fighting  for 
freedom  and  justice,"  replied  Mrs.  Richards. 


DRAMATIC  INCIDENTS  87 

But  it  is  not  always  the  speaker  who  comes  out 
on  top.  When  Doctor  Lyman  Abbott  gave  an 
address  on  ".Why  I  Believe  in  Immortality"  at 
Ford  HaU,  a  man  in  the  audience  disconcerted  the 
learned  editor  by  the  quickness  of  his  thinking. 
The  question  had  been  asked,  "Name  any  well- 
known  biologist  who  does  not  agree  that  conscious- 
ness is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  the  interaction 
of  nervous  forces."  Doctor  Abbott  replied,  "Pro- 
fessor Munsterberg." 

But  the  questioner  would  not  so  be  put  off. 
"Professor  Munsterberg  is  a  psychologist,  not  a 
biologist,"  he  replied  quickly.  And  Doctor  Abbott 
admitted  that  he  could  not,  offhand,  answer  the 
question  rightly. 

A  dramatic  encounter  in  which  a  truculent  Irish- 
man had  a  part  occurred  some  years  later.  Doctor 
John  Love  joy  Elliott  of  New  York  had  referred, 
in  the  course  of  his  address,  to  a  recent  visit  made 
by  him  to  one  of  the  New  York  institutions  where, 
as  it  happened,  all  the  patients  in  the  mental 
diseases  ward  had  been  Jews,  and  all  those  in  the 
ward  given  over  to  alcoholics,  Irishmen.  The 
Irishman  construed  this  as  an  insult  to  the  Irish 
race  and  tried  to  tangle  the  speaker  up  by  asking 
him  how  he  got  his  information.  Doctor  Elliott 
replied  that  it  was  a  simple  matter  of  record;  he 
had  seen  the  names  of  both  sets  of  men.  But 
the  questioner  was  still  unsatisfied  and  took  his 
seat  only  after  a  tremendous  laugh  had  been  turned 
upon  him  by  the  Chairman's  saying,   "What  the 


88  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE   MAKING 

questioner  wants  to  know  is  how  Doctor  Elliott  can 
tell  a  Jew  from  an  Irishman." 

The  questions  of  one  of  our  Jew  friends,  Sam 
Sackmary,  always  contribute  vastly  to  the  interest 
of  the  evening.  It  was  Sam  who  once  testified, 
"I  am  a  Jew,  but  I  want  to  say  right  here  that 
nothing  in  the  history  of  Boston  has  shown  the 
Christian  religion  in  a  better  light  than  these 
meetings.  It  has  been  proved  up  here  that  all  of 
us,  of  all  races  and  creeds,  are  brothers  and  can 
work  together.  As  Faneuil  Hall  has  been  called 
the  'Cradle  of  Liberty,'  so  I  ask  leave  to  christen 
Ford  Hall  Boston's  'Cradle  of  Fraternity.'" 

Such  a  man  would,  of  course,  ask  interesting 
questions  because  he  is  an  interesting  person.  And 
when  the  Chairman  can  "get  one"  on  Sam,  every- 
body, including  Sam,  enjoys  it.  Not  long  ago 
this  happened.  Mary  Antin  was  the  speaker  and, 
in  the  course  of  her  address,  she  had  alluded  to^a 
cousin  whom  she  had  taken  into  her  home  as  friend, 
philosopher,  and  cook.  Sam,  during  the  question 
period,  inquired  eagerly,  "What  has  become  of  the 
cousm.^ 

"Oh,  she's  married,"  replied  Mrs.  Grabau. 

"Too  late,  Sam,"  put  in  the  Chairman.  For 
Sam  is  a  bachelor  and  highly  eligible. 

Another  exceedingly  interesting  Jew  who  comes 
to  Ford  Hall,  who  has,  indeed,  been  called  on  more 
than  one  occasion  "a  Ford  Hall  product,"  is  Freda 
Rogolsky.  She  was  a  young  girl  of  about  sixteen 
when  she  first  came  to  Ford  Hall  to  hear  one  of 


I 


DRAMATIC   INCIDENTS  89 

those  masterly  addresses  of  Rabbi"  Schulman. 
Because  of  the  persecution  her  family  had  felt 
before  they  left  Russia,  Freda  was  particularly  bit- 
ter toward  everything  that  called  itself  Christian. 
When  passing  a  Christian  church,  she  would  spit 
on  the  sidewalk  to  express  her  contempt.  Ford 
Hall  softened  her  heart  and  won  her  admiration. 
About  a  year  after  her  first  appearance  among 
us,  she  wrote  a  letter  to  the  Chairman  in  which 
she  said  that  she  looked  forward  to  the  Ford  Hall 
Meetings  the  way  she  looked  for  the  stars  at  night, 
and  that  she  had  never  understood  what  America 
meant  until  she  came  to  Ford  Hall.  She  couldn't 
believe  before  that  people  representing  different  re- 
ligious faiths  might  sit  down  together  in  a  friendly 
spirit  and  discuss  great  themes  without  wanting 
to  kill  each  other  as  they  did  in  Russia. 

Freda's  father  and  mother  never  come  to  Ford 
Hall  because  they  are  still  too  foreign  in  language 
to  understand,  and  too  orthodox  in  faith  to  adapt 
themselves  to  such  a  meeting-place.  As  soon  as 
they  discovered  that  their  little  daughter  was  being 
blessed  and  made  happy  in  spirit  without  being 
proselytized,  they  manifested  their  good  will  and 
appreciation  by  extending  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Coleman 
an  earnest  invitation  to  come  to  their  humble 
home  in  the  West  End  and  partake  of  the  Passover 
Feast  with  them.  And  they  were  heard  after  the 
event  to  declare  that  Mr.  Coleman  must  have 
Jewish  blood  in  his  veins. 

Young  men  and  young  women  who  are  "keeping 


90  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

company"  together  are  often  in  the  audience  at 
Ford  Hall,  and  sometimes  the  question  that  one  or 
the  other  of  them  asks  the  speaker  is  seen  to  have 
a  very  personal  bearing.  Such  was  the  case  with 
the  tall  youth  who  one  night  asked  Doctor  Charles 
Fleischer  very  shyly  whether  a  Jew  and  a  Christian 
would  do  right  to  marry.  "If  both  want  to,  my 
answer  would  be  'y^^,'  of  course,"  replied  the 
speaker  of  the  evening.  "And  if  you  can't  find  a 
minister  who  wants  to  tie  the  knot,"  he  added, 
"come  to  me."  Young  men  and  young  women 
who  together  have  listened  thoughtfully  to  such 
addresses  and  discussions  as  go  on  at  Ford  Hall 
would  seem  to  have  taken  a  very  good  course 
preparatory  to  a  safe  and  happy  marriage.  Nowa- 
days it  is  a  truism  that  the  double  standard  of 
morals  is  a  thing  not  to  be  tolerated.  But  when 
Professor  William  Salter,  speaking  at  Ford  Hall,  in 
November,  1908,  on  "Tolstoi's  Story  of  a  Soul's 
Resurrection",  asserted  that  "the  man  who  sins 
against  chastity  is  as  culpable  as  a  woman,"  the 
thought  was  so  new  that  it  got  into  the  headlines 
of  the  morning  papers.  Later  Clifford  Roe  of 
Chicago  spoke  on  "The  Unsocial  Evil",  and 
though  a  woman  member  of  the  citizens'  committee 
presided,  —  in  the  absence  of  the  Chairman,  — 
and  the  plainest  of  English  was  used  throughout 
the  evening,  the  meeting  passed  off  without  any 
undue  strain  or  any  great  feeling  of  self-conscious- 
ness on  the  part  of  the  audience.  It  was  much 
the  same  when  Richard  Bennett,  the  actor,  talked 


DRAMATIC  INCIDENTS  91 

about  his  object  in  producing  Brieux's  Damaged 
Goods;  or  on  the  evening  (in  1914)  when  "Breeding 
Men"  was  the  topic,  and  two  physicians  and  a 
clergyman  set  forth  in  untechnical  terms  the  right 
of  every  child  to  be  well  born. 

Probably  the  most  paradoxical  thing  in  all  Ford 
Hall  history  happened  during  the  season  of  1910- 
1911  when  Father  Thomas  I.  Gasson,  a  Jesuit, 
spoke  on  a  Baptist  platform,  —  Baptist,  at  least, 
in  support,  —  and  advocated  anti-Socialism  to  a 
company  of  people  a  large  number  of  whom  were 
ardent  Socialists.  And  the  whole  occasion  was 
marked  by  the  utmost  good  will!  The  numerical 
response  to  that  meeting  was  unprecedented  and 
the  newspapers  of  the  following  morning  devoted 
nearly  their  entire  front  pages  to  reports  of  the 
lecture  and  of  the  questions  and  answers.  One  of 
these  questions  was  whether  Father  Gasson  would 
refuse  the  Communion  to  a  man  he  knew  to  be  a 
Socialist.  The  reply  was  that  it  would  depend  on 
what  kind  of  a  Socialist  the  man  might  be.  When 
in  answering  another  question,  the  speaker  of  the 
evening  confessed  that  he  had  never  read  the  plat- 
form of  the  Socialist  party,  a  Socialist  who  had  a 
place  nearby  deftly  slipped  a  copy  of  this  economic 
creed  into  the  Jesuit's  hand. 

Norman  Hapgood,  editor  of  Harper's  Weekly,  is 
a  man  whom  Ford  Hall  always  turns  out  to  wel- 
come warmly;  and  there  is  usually  a  good  deal  of 
life  and  color  in  his  question  period.  Once,  when 
he  and  another  man  were  sharing  the  questions. 


m  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

there  appeared  to  be  some  doubt  as  to  whom  the 
inquirer  wished  to  have  answer  his  query.  "Here, 
let's  match  for  it,"  put  in  Hapgood,  stretching  out 
his  long  figure  to  reach  into  his  trousers'  pocket, 
and  they  almost  did!  Hapgood  has  a  Lincolnian 
habit  of  making  his  effects  by  means  of  homely 
stories  which  greatly  delight  his  Ford  Hall  hearers. 
Once,  when  asked  how  much  his  paper  had  done 
to  secure  presidential  primaries,  he  replied  as 
follows: 

"Young  Sammy  often  listened  in  wonder  to  his 
father's  tales  of  deeds  of  daring  done  during  the 
Civil  War.  One  day,  after  a  particularly  thrilling 
account  of  how  father  had  saved  the  day  for  the 
Union,  Sammy  asked,  'Say,  pa,  did  any  one  help 
you  put  down  the  rebellion.f^'  " 

For  such  movements  as  Foreign  Missions,  an 
audience  like  that  at  Ford  Hall  might  be  supposed 
to  have  very  little  enthusiasm.  Their  attitude  of 
mind,  for  the  most  part,  would  be  more  nearly 
expressed  in  the  question  once  put  here  to  William 
T.  Ellis,  "Doesn't  charity  begin  at  home.?"  than 
in  that  speaker's  reply,  "Yes,  but  it  ceases  to  be 
charity  if  it  stays  there."  None  the  less,  among 
the  stirring  moments  in  the  history  of  this  move- 
ment, there  has  been  none  more  dramatic  than 
when  Thomas  C.  Hall  of  New  York,  in  reply  to 
a  question  a  year  ago,  belittling  the  value  of  for- 
eign missions,  burst  out  passionately,  "Selfish, 
selfish  egoists,  are  we,  every  one,  if  we  say  that 
anybody  in  our  backyard  is  more  valuable  than 


DRAMATIC  INCIDENTS  93 

any  God-given  child  under  the  sun!  Every  human 
child  needs  redemption.  If  we  believe  our  reli- 
gion, God  will  blast  us  if  we  do  not  tell  it  to  every 
man  and  woman  in  the  world.  Would  that  I  had 
a  thousand  lives  that  I  might  pour  them  all  out 
preaching  this  gospel  to  men  everywhere!" 

The  Ford  Hall  people  thrilled  to  that.  For  it 
was  an  application  to  the  ideals  of  the  Christian 
of  the  very  thing  they  care  so  deeply  about.  Not 
a  man  or  woman  among  them  whose  soul  does  not 
kindle  and  whose  eyes  fail  to  glow  when  the  words 
brotherhood  and  democracy  are  pronounced;  and 
from  Doctor  Hall,  who  is  working  hard,  just  as 
they  are,  at  the  job  of  social  revolution,  the  job  of 
making  it  possible  for  Christ's  kingdom  to  come  on 
earth,  they  are  very  willing  to  accept  a  plea  for 
Foreign  Missions.  They  are  themselves  imbued 
with  the  Foreign  Mission  idea,  though  they  do  not 
realize  it.  Their  desire  to  set  up  in  other  cities 
forums  where  other  men  and  women  may  experi- 
ence something  of  the  joy  and  freedom  which  Ford 
Hall  has  meant  to  them  is  close  kin  to  the  passion 
of  the  saved  man  to  go  forth  and  save  others.  Not 
long  ago  at  a  gathering  of  the  Ford  Hall  Folks, 
there  was  some  talk  about  the  advisability  of 
having  collections  at  the  meetings  and  as  to  the 
use  which  should  be  made  of  any  money  that 
might  thus  be  raised.  Nearly  all  the  folk  are 
poor  and  many  of  them  are  brought  face  to  face 
daily  with  want,  —  if  not  in  their  own  persons  in 
the  person  of  their  neighbors.     It  would  have  been 


94  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

quite  natural  had  they  decided  to  devote  whatever 
sums  might  be  raised  by  the  proposed  collections  to 
the  alleviation  of  the  material  needs  of  their  friends 
and  fellow-countrymen.  But  that  was  not  at  all 
what  they  did  vote.  "Let  us  put  this  money  into 
the  dissemination  of  the  Ford  Hall  idea,"  they  said, 
with  almost  a  single  voice.  "Let  us  help  to  multi- 
ply throughout  America  forums  which,  like  ours, 
will  enable  Jew  and  Gentile,  believer  and  unbe- 
liever, and  Christians  of  every  phase  and  fashion, 
to  understand  each  other  and  so  become  brothers." 
The  Ford  Hall  people  care  about  and  deeply 
believe  in  this  kind  of  missionary  work.  They 
know  that  it  is  true,  as  James  P.  Munroe  pointed 
out  on  a  certain  anniversary  occasion,  that,  "after 
two  centuries  of  talking  about  democracy,  we  are 
at  last  making  democracy.  Just  as  Rome  was 
fortunate  in  having  its  Mars  Hill  upon  which 
men  like  Paul  could  stand  and  tell  truths,  Boston 
is  fortunate,"  he  said,  "in  having  Ford  Hall  on 
Beacon  Hill." 


CHAPTER  XI 
THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  DEVOTIONAL  EXPRESSION 

By  George  W.  Coleman 

THERE  is  something  about  the  Ford  Hall 
Sunday-evening  Meetings  that  is  unique. 
Although  they  were  modeled  somewhat 
after  the  Sunday-evening  Meetings  held  in  Cooper 
Union,  New  York,  every  one  who  is  familiar  with 
both  says  they  are  distinctly  different.  More  per- 
haps than  any  other  similar  open  forum,  the  Ford 
Hall  Meetings  have  the  power  to  propagate  them- 
selves. In  the  writer's  judgment  this  distinctly 
virile  quality  is  due  largely  to  the  deep  and  broadly 
pervasive,  though  entirely  unsectarian,  religious 
note  which  is  never  lacking  and  which  finds  audible 
expression  in  the  congregational  singing,  the  custom- 
ary prayer,  and  the  occasional  Scripture  reading. 
This  manifestation  of  the  devotional  element  in 
the  meeting,  however,  was  somewhat  slow  and 
gradual  in  its  development.  The  how  and  why 
of  it  make  a  rather  interesting  story. 

At  the  initial  meeting,  February  23,  1908,  it 
was  the  writer's  intention,  as  Chairman,  to  read 
the  twenty-third  Psalm,  lead  in  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
and  ask  every  one  to  join  in  the  singing  of  "Amer- 


96  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE   MAKING 

ica."  But  the  small  attendance,  —  only  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  in  a  hall  that  seats  eleven  hundred, 
—  was  so  dunifounding  that  all  preconceived  ideas 
were  thrown  to  the  winds,  and  the  situation  dealt 
with  as  appeared  to  be  wise  at  the  time.  As  a  result, 
there  was  no  congregational  singing,  —  no  devo- 
tional exercises  whatever.  Throughout  the  first  and 
second  seasons,  the  meetings  continued  to  be  con- 
ducted in  this  fashion,  in  spite  of  the  very  emphatic 
protest  of  some  of  the  official  members  of  the 
Boston  Baptist  Social  Union. 

To  the  Chairman  it  seemed  that  it  would  be 
fatal  for  any  one  to  attempt  to  prescribe  spiritual 
conventions  for  this  wholly  unprecedented  audience 
made  up  in  large  part  of  Jews,  agnostics,  and  non- 
churchgoers  generally;  and  yet  he  was  hopeful  that, 
by  experimentation,  it  might  be  possible  to  find 
some  mode  of  expression  of  the  religious  spirit 
which  would  meet  with  general  approval  and  greatly 
strengthen  the  character  of  the  meetings.  Strangely 
enough,  on  an  Easter  Sunday  night,  when  he  was 
himself  to  give  the  address  of  the  evening  on  the 
subject  "The  Religion  of  the  Crowd"  and  had 
made  up  his  mind  that  the  time  had  come  to  see 
if  they  could  pray  together  without  introducing 
anything  divisive,  he  was  earnestly  warned  against 
taking  such  a  dangerous  step.  This  was  the  atti- 
tude of  some  of  his  dearest  and  most  trusted  and 
more  spiritually-minded  friends,  who  conceived 
that  prayer  was  rather  out  of  place  on  such  an 
occasion.     When  the  suggestion  of  prayer  was  made 


STRUGGLE  FOR  DEVOTIONAL  EXPRESSION  97 

to  the  audience,  some  held  their  breath  lest  the 
beautiful  spirit  of  fellowship  and  mutual  considera- 
tion which  had  been  so  painstakingly  developed 
might  be  broken  down  and  dissipated  at  one  fell 
stroke.  In  view  of  the  presence  of  three  or  four 
hundred  Jews, — many  of  them  direct  from  Russia, 
still  tingling  from  Christian  persecution, — a  diffi- 
cult problem  indeed  was  presented! 

The  Chairman  had  made  up  his  mind,  however, 
that  the  time  had  come  to  attempt  devotional  ex- 
pression. He  began  by  telling  the  audience  about 
that  universal  prayer  which  was  used  at  all  of  the 
sessions  of  the  Parliament  of  Religions  in  Chicago, 
and  was  found  to  be  equally  acceptable  to  Buddhist, 
Confucianist,  Mohammedan,  Jew,  Catholic,  and 
Protestant;  and  the  suggestion  was  made  that  it 
was  reasonable  to  suppose  that  this  same  prayer 
might  prove  well  adapted  to  the  company  at  Ford 
Hall,  which,  after  all,  was  not  so  complex  as  the 
Chicago  one.  The  audience  then  joined  in  that 
universal  prayer,  —  the  Lord's  Prayer,  —  those  re- 
citing it  who  could,  and  others  holding  an  attitude 
of  respect  or  reverence  as  a  matter  of  courtesy. 

Throughout  the  next  season  the  Chairman 
sought,  at  the  beginning  of  each  meeting,  to 
gather  up  the  aspirations  of  the  whole  company 
in  some  prayerful  expression  that  was  devoid  of 
any  technically  religious  language,  and  which  would 
appeal  to  the  conscience  of  all  sound-hearted 
people.  But  because  he  did  this  extempora- 
neously, he  was    under    the   triple    embarrassment 


98  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  IVLA^KING 

of  being  self-conscious,  aware  of  the  opposing 
elements  in  the  audience,  and  fearful  of  slipping 
into  the  use  of  religious  expressions  that  were  like 
second  nature  to  him  but  would  only  be  an  offense 
to  some  of  those  who  heard  him.  At  the  beginning 
of  the  next  season,  following  the  advice  of  a  well- 
known  theological  professor,  he  committed  his 
prayers  to  writing.  This  insured  brevity,  removed 
his  own  anxiety,  and  gave  added  force. 

Although   there   were   occasional   rumors   to   the 

effect  that  the  meetings  were  getting  "too  d 

religious",  no  serious  criticism  was  encountered  on 
account  of  the  custom  of  praying  together,  and  it 
was  not  long  after  the  written  form  had  been 
adopted  that  this  astounding  thing  happened  one 
night:  The  prayer  was  followed  by  a  big  round 
of  applause!  The  topic  for  the  evening  had  been 
"The  Fine  Art  of  Stealing",  and  the  prayer  natu- 
rally dealt  with  the  subject  of  property  and  covetous- 
ness.  Although  the  applause  took  the  Chairman's 
breath  away  for  a  moment,  he  could  not  see  very 
much  difference  between  clapping  the  hands  and 
shouting  "Amen",  and  frankly  told  the  audience 
that  they  at  Ford  Hall  did  not  have  to  follow 
precedents,  but  could  make  their  own;  if  that  was 
their  way  of  expressing  their  participation  in  a 
prayer,  they  were  welcome  to  use  it.  Ever  since 
then,  whenever  the  audience  feels  so  disposed 
(which  is  not  always,  by  any  means),  the  prayer 
is  applauded, —  with  greater  or  less  vigor,  according 
to  the  interest  it  has  elicited. 


STRUGGLE  FOR  DEVOTIONAL  EXPRESSION  99 

At  various  times,  Professor  Rauschenbusch's 
published  prayers  were,  found  most  acceptable  to 
the  audience,  and  they  were  used  as  often  as  the 
subject  under  discussion  for  the  evening  made  an 
appropriate  selection  possible.  The  audience  had 
come  to  know  and  had  learned  to  love  Professor 
Rauschenbusch  by  hearing  him  on  the  Ford  Hall 
platform,  and  so  greatly  enjoyed  the  reading  of 
his  prayers. 

In  the  meantime  some  fine  hymns  had  been 
found  that  could  be  sung  without  introducing  any- 
thing offensive  to  race,  class,  or  creed.  "America, 
the  Beautiful,"  by  Katharine  Lee  Bates,  soon  be- 
came a  great  favorite.  Gilbert  K.  Chesterton's 
"O  God  of  Earth  and  Altar"  and  Ella  Wheeler 
Wilcox's  "The  Government  to  Be"  are  very  popu- 
lar at  these  meetings.  "God  Save  the  People,"  by 
Ebenezer  Elliott,  is  also  much  liked. 

It  is  wonderful  how  well  this  variable  and  com- 
plex crowd  can  sing  some  of  the  hymns  with  which 
they  have  become  fairly  familiar,  and  their  ability 
along  this  line  is  constantly  increasing.  Mr.  John 
Harris  Gutterson,  who  had  general  charge  of  the 
musical  portion  of  the  program  for  three  or  four 
seasons,  was  largely  responsible  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  congregational  singing. 

At  various  times  some  young  Jewess  has  read 
a  passage  from  the  Old  Testament,  and  occa- 
sionally a  speaker  hangs  his  message  on  a  text 
from  either  the  Old  or  New  Testament.  Thus  it 
is    that   the   devotional    element   has    found    very 


100  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  IMAKING 

marked  expression  in  the  meetings,  with  great  bene- 
fit to  all  and  no  hurt  to  any,  so  far  as  can  be  ob- 
served. During  the  prayer  very  many  do  not  bow 
their  heads  at  all,  but  this  is  quite  usual  in  Jewish 
audiences  when  prayer  is  offered.  In  order  not 
to  fall  into  a  conventional  habit,  an  effective  poem 
sometimes  takes  the  place  of  prayer,  and  again, 
occasionally,  for  two  and  sometimes  three  meet- 
ings in  succession,  there  is  nothing  at  all  of  this 
nature. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  character  and 
form  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  furnishes  the  type  of 
devotional  expression  that  best  fits  an  audience  so 
conglomerate  as  this  one  in  its  religious  predilec- 
tions. An  ascription  to  deity,  couched  in  varying 
terms  according  to  the  mood  of  the  hour,  followed 
by  simple,  direct  petitions  for  help  and  blessing, 
terminating  with  a  simple  "Amen",  provides  a 
vehicle  for  the  expression  of  common  aspirations 
without  provoking  contention,  or  stirring  prejudice, 
or  incurring  ill  will  on  the  part  of  any  one.  While 
the  prayers  have  always  been  more  or  less  uncon- 
ventional, they  have  never  verged  on  what  is  com- 
mon or  cheap.  Occasionally  some  one  who  never 
attends  the  meetings  and  knows  nothing  of  the 
hearts  and  minds  of  the  people  who  congregate 
there  raises  the  objection  that  these  prayers  are 
hopelessly  futile  because  they  are  not  offered  in 
the  name  of  Christ.  Such  a  person  forgets  that 
the  Christian  and  Jew,  who  worship  the  same  God, 
cannot  pray   together   in   that   way;    and  he  also 


STRUGGLE  FOR  DEVOTIONAL  EXPRESSION;    lai 

overlooks  the  form  of  the  model  prayer  which  Jesus 
himself  gave  his  disciples. 

The  prayers  have  proved  themselves  to  be  suflB- 
ciently  effective  for  the  members  of  the  audience 
to  request  that  they  be  put  in  printed  form,  and 
this  has  resulted  in  the  publication,  by  the  American 
Baptist  Publication  Society  (Griffith  and  Rowland 
Press),  Philadelphia,  of  a  little  book,  entitled  The 
People  s  Prayers  as  Voiced  by  a  Layman.  This 
book  contains,  in  addition  to  a  selection  of  about 
thirty  of  the  prayers,  a  dozen  or  more  of  the 
hymns  that  are  most  used  at  the  Ford  Hall 
Meetings. 

Many  surprising  and  striking  incidents  have 
occurred,  giving  evidence  of  the  strong  under- 
current of  religious  feeling  that  pervades  the  meet- 
ings. There  was  a  very  dramatic  occasion,  one 
evening  during  the  fourth  season,  when  Mr.  Frank 
Urbanski,  then  a  firebrand  street  preacher  of 
Socialism  and  agnosticism  (he  has  more  lately 
been  advocating  religion  and  attacking  Socialism, 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church), 
and  a  band  of  his  young  cohorts,  entrenched  them- 
selves in  a  body  in  the  left-hand  gallery.  The 
speaker  of  the  evening.  Reverend  James  A.  Francis, 
D.D.,  gave  a  splendid  address  on  the  topic,  "The 
Get-Together  Basis  in  Religion."  When  the  ques- 
tion period  reached  their  gallery,  Urbanski  led  off 
with  the  first  of  a  series  of  questions  which  he  had 
prepared  and  distributed  among  his  followers,  all 
of  which  were  in  a  hateful,  carping,  bigoted  spirit. 


im  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE   IVIAKING 

For  example,  one  young  fellow  wanted  to  know 
how  the  speaker  knew  that  man  had  a  soul;  did 
he  ever  weigh  a  person  just  before  he  died  and  just 
afterward  and,  if  so,  how  much  did  the  soul  weigh? 
The  Chairman  went  out  of  the  hall  that  night, 
discouraged  and  depressed,  spiritually  chilled  to 
the  bone,  a  fit  subject  for  spiritual  pneumonia. 
On  leaving  the  building  and  passing  little  groups 
of  people  still  engaged  in  discussing  the  meeting, 
he  noticed  one  made  up  of  Urbanski's  company 
and  found  them  railing  at  one  of  their  number 
after  this  fashion:  "Good-by,  old  man;  Good-by. 
We're  sorry  to  lose  you.  The  Christians  have  got 
you!"  Turning  toward  the  individual  thus  ad- 
dressed, the  Chairman  recognized  one  of  his  flock 
who  was  particularly  noted  for  his  bitterness  toward 
the  church.  He  was  facing  his  erstwhile  compan- 
ions and  met  their  jeer  with  great  vigor  and 
dignity,  declaring  repeatedly  that  he  was  a  Chris- 
tian, that  he  believed  in  Jesus  Christ,  but  that  he 
was  no  church  member  any  more.  He  then  ex- 
plained to  the  Chairman  that  he  had  been  deeply 
interested  in  the  lecture  of  the  evening  and  had 
accepted  every  word. 

It  is  generally  recognized  that  it  has  been  pos- 
sible to  do  some  things  at  Ford  Hall  which  are 
ordinarily  regarded  as  very  dangerous  or  impossible. 
When  it  is  realized  that  a  Jesuit  priest  has  spoken 
on  a  platform  supported  by  Baptist  money,  and 
has  emphasized  the  dangers  of  Socialism  in  a 
crowded  meeting  freely  open  to  every  radical  mind 


STRUGGLE  FOR  DEVOTIONAL  EXPRESSION  103 

and  bitter  spirit  of  a  great  cosmopolitan  city  with- 
out incurring  any  disaster  or  even  reflecting  any  dis- 
credit, one  begins  to  understand  that  there  must  be 
something  about  the  atmosphere  of  the  Ford  Hall 
Meetings  which  is  different  from  that  of  the  usual 
heterogeneous  mass  meeting.  On  the  occasion  just 
referred  to,  both  the  speaker  and  the  audience 
handled  themselves  with  credit  to  all  concerned 
through  two  hours  of  intense  intellectual  conflict 
and  emotional  strain. 

In  the  writer's  judgment,  it  is  the  all-powerful, 
though  untagged  and  often  unrecognized,  religious 
spirit  which  pervades  the  whole  company  that  makes 
this  possible.  How  otherwise  could  preacher  and 
atheist,  Jew  and  Christian,  Protestant  and  Catholic, 
Socialist  and  anarchist,  radical  and  conservative, 
syndicalist  and  monopolist,  trade-unionist  and 
trust  magnate,  hear  each  other  propound  antago- 
nistic views  with  never  a  serious  violation  of  the 
limitations  of  courtesy,  mutual  respect,  kindly 
toleration,  and  fair  play.^*  That  is  what  goes  on 
at  Ford  Hall  constantly.  The  result,  as  may  be 
easily  seen,  is  to  mellow  and  soften  the  hateful 
and  bitter,  to  prod  and  quicken  the  smug  and 
complacent,  to  broaden  and  expand  the  narrow 
and  bigoted,  and  to  temper  and  focus  the  dreamer 
and  visionary. 


PART    II 
A    REGISTER  OF  JUDGMENTS 


INTRODUCTION  TO  PART  H 

THE  Ford  Hall  enterprise  is  forever  in- 
debted to  the  men  and  women  who  have 
freely  given  of  their  best  on  our  plat- 
form that  others  might  have  life  and  have  it  more 
abundantly.  This  is  as  true  of  those  who  have 
served  in  our  musical  programs  as  it  is  of  those 
who  have  come  to  lecture  and  then  willingly  sub- 
mitted themselves  as  targets  for  the  rapid-fire 
questioning  of  an  audience  with  a  high  record  for 
marksmanship.  The  fact  that  such  splendid  serv- 
ice has  been  rendered,  year  in  and  year  out,  not 
for  gain  or  personal  advantage  but  simply  to  help 
our  common  humanity,  has  been  in  itself  a  great 
asset  to  our  work  from  the  very  beginning. 

Who,  then,  would  be  getter  qualified  to  give  a 
careful  judgment  as  to  the  worth  of  the  Ford  Hall 
principle  and  the  value  of  the  Ford  Hall  spirit 
than  some  of  those  very  same  speakers  who  have 
come  to  know  us  so  well.^^  Their  own  experience 
is  so  rich  and  their  reputation  so  wide  that  any 
judgment  they  render  would  carry  great  weight 
and  travel  far. 

Every  one  of  the  following  chapters  is  written 
by  a  lecturer  who  has  faced  a  Ford  Hall  audience 
from  two  to  eight  times.     Every  one  of  the  speak- 


108  DEMOCRACY  xN  THE  MAKING 

ers  is  greatly  respected  and  admired  by  the  Ford 
Hall  people.  They  are  all  top-notchers  in  their 
power  to  instruct  and  sway  this  strange,  hetero- 
geneous audience.  There  are  a  number  of  others 
who  might  well  have  been  included  in  this  group, 
did  space  and  circumstances  permit.  These  will 
suiBce,  however,  to  present  an  all-round  interpre- 
tation of  Ford  Hall,  gathered  from  widely  varying 
points  of  view.  The  Jew,  the  Catholic,  the 
Protestant,  and  the  agnostic  are  all  represented 
among  these  speakers.  Three  of  them  are  Socialists 
of  one  stripe  or  another,  and  at  least  one  is  dis- 
tinctly an  anti-Socialist.  Irish,  German,  Hungarian, 
Swiss,  Russian,  Austrian,  and  New  England  stock 
is  represented  among  them.  Six  of  them  are 
preachers  by  profession.  Roughly  speaking,  they 
are  all  in  the  prime  of  life,  around  the  forties 
and  fifties.  Not  one  of  them  is  a  person  of  wealth 
or  privilege  or  leisure.  They  come  from  England, 
Minnesota,   Iowa,  New  York,   and  New  England. 

Stanton  Coit,  the  social  mystic,  whose  dec- 
larations are  all  wrong  from  the  orthodox  point 
of  view,  will  open  his  Bible  to  the  text,  "Am  I 
My  Brother's  Keeper.?"  and  preach  to  those  Ford 
Hall  folks  a  sermon  which,  for  spiritual  insight 
and  practical  effectiveness,  will  be  the  masterpiece 
of  the  season.  No  one  ever  comes  to  our  platform 
with  a  more  contagious  spiritual  fervor  than  that 
which  characterizes  this  speaker. 

Rabbi  Wise  is  immensely  popular  at  Ford  Hall 
with  both  Jew  and  Gentile.     His  coming  is  looked 


INTRODUCTION  109 

forward  to  every  year  as  one  of  the  great  treats  of 
the  season.  He  never  fails  in  his  popular  appeal, 
and  he  always  brings  a  real  message  of  transform- 
ing power,  as  I  have  had  occasion  to  witness  more 
than  once. 

No  speaker  who  comes  to  Ford  Hall  is  more 
beloved  than  Professor  Rauschenbusch.  Jew  and 
Christian  alike  feel  the  same  warmth  of  affection 
toward  him.  He  has  kept  in  the  closest  touch 
with  our  enterprise  almost  from  the  very  begin- 
ning, and  his  great  name  and  influence  were  a 
tower  of  strength  to  us  in  our  troublous  days. 

That  night,  years  ago,  when  Professor  Steiner 
took  us  by  the  hand  and  led  us  swiftly  up  the 
heights  of  brotherhood,  will  forever  remain  a  most 
delectable  memory.  There  was  something  almost 
uncanny  in  the  delicate  and  yet  powerful  under- 
standing that  fused  us  all,  speaker  and  audience, 
into  one  great  soul  that  night.  "Sitting  in  heavenly 
places"  would  be  the  only  language  I  know  that 
would  properly  describe  our  experience  on  that 
occasion. 

If  we  were  to  have  just  one  speaker  to  carry  us 
through  a  whole  season  at  Ford  Hall,  Professor 
Zueblin  would  come  nearer  to  fulfilling  the  re- 
quirements than  any  man  that  I  know.  He  comes 
to  us  regularly,  year  after  year,  with  a  message 
each  time  as  fresh,  pungent,  and  practical  as  the 
first  one  we  ever  heard  from  him.  And  I  think 
very  likely  he  understands  us  more  completely 
than  any  one  else. 


110  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  IVIAKING 

President  Faunce  perhaps  would  not  be  picked 
among  the  first  choices  as  a  winning  speaker  for 
such  an  unorthodox  crowd,  from  every  point  of 
view,  as  gathers  at  Ford  Hall.  But  that  is  where 
we  all  would  make  a  mistake.  He  made  a  flying 
start  and  a  hot  finish  the  very  first  time  he 
appeared  before  our  folks.  Our  difficulty  is  to 
get  him  as  often  as  we  want  him. 

Father  Ryan  is  entirely  correct  in  his  under- 
standing of  the  growing  appreciation  of  and  friendli- 
ness for  him  on  the  part  of  the  Ford  Hall  audience, 
after  his  appearance  on  our  platform  for  three  suc- 
cessive seasons.  Not  only  by  the  intrinsic  value  of 
his  addresses  and  through  the  attractiveness  of  his 
own  personality,  but  also  because  of  what  he  repre- 
sented, has  he  made  a  marked  and  very  valuable 
contribution  to  the  thought  and  feeling  of  those 
who  attend  Ford  Hall.  It  was  a  distinctly  pleas- 
ant revelation  to  many  of  us  Protestants  to  dis- 
cover that  the  Roman  Church  was  making  such 
splendid  contributions  to  the  economic  and  social 
thought  of  the  day.  We  value  highly  this  friendly 
commingling  with  our  Catholic  friends  in  these 
days  when  religious  prejudice  is  running  riot;  and 
I  trust  that  they  will  understand  that  Ford  Hall 
is  not  a  church,  nor  does  it  teach  a  religion  in  the 
Catholic  sense  of  that  word,  nor  does  it  assume 
any  guardianship  over  the  messages  that  are  de- 
livered from  its  platform.  Ford  Hall  is  an  Open 
Forum,  and  is  like  an  independent  newspaper  that 
seeks  to  give  expression  to  all  sides.     When  Father 


INTRODUCTION  111 

Ryan    appears    on    our   platform,    he   is    no    more 

responsible   for   the   speaker   of    the   preceding   or 

the  following  Sunday  than  he  was  responsible  for 

all  the  articles  in  Everybody's  Magazine  during  the 

months  that  he  was  writing  for  it. 

G.  W.  C. 


CHAPTER  I 
BY  A  MAN  OF  THE  CHURCH 

Walter  Rauschenhusch 

THE  first  thing  that  impresses  a  speaker 
who  is  used  to  church  surroundings  is 
the  auditorium  of  Ford  Halh  In  its 
construction  and  ornamentation  there  is  no  sugges- 
tion of  churchliness;  neither  is  there  anything 
theatrical.  It  is  an  auditorium  for  speaking  and 
for  nothing  else.  It  is  of  ideal  size,  readily  con- 
trolled by  any  conversational  voice.  There  are 
no  distant  spaces  in  the  rear,  where  the  faces  of 
the  audience  melt  into  a  dim  confusion.  Every 
face  which  bends  down  from  the  gallery  to  phrase 
its  question  is  seen  by  the  man  on  the  platform 
as  a  laboring  and  expressive  human  face  with  a 
soul  behind  it.  A  larger  hall  would  demand  de- 
clamatory delivery  from  the  speaker,  and  would 
suppress  all  except  a  few  self-assertive  persons  in 
the  audience.  Ford  Hall  is  an  ideal  place  for 
intellectual  discussion  to  which  a  friendly  human 
touch  can  be  added.  And  that  is  the  forum  idea: 
thought  jjIus  friendliness. 

As  I  am  asked  to  write  this  chapter  as  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  church,  I  take  satisfaction  in  the 
fact   that   the   plant   for   these   meetings   was   fur- 


BY  A  MAN  OF  THE  CHURCH  113 

nished  through  church  influences.  During  his 
Hfetime,  the  deepest  interests  and  purposes  of  Mr. 
Ford  were  rehgious,  and  his  bequest,  though  social 
in  part,  had  the  same  purpose.  He  placed  it 
under  the  control  of  a  religious  organization  to 
carry  out  that  purpose.  It  was  very  natural  that 
at  least  a  minority  of  the  Baptist  Social  Union 
should  be  in  doubt  whether  these  secular  meetings 
are  religious  enough  to  justify  the  use  of  these 
trust  funds.  I  can  imagine  other  religious  bodies 
that  would  never  have  yielded  the  use  of  the  prop- 
erty for  such  a  purpose,  or  would  still  be  hesi- 
tating about  launching  out  on  uncharted  seas. 
The  Baptist  Social  Union  deserves  real  credit  for 
taking  so  broad  a  view  of  the  scope  of  religious 
work  at  all. 

In  the  same  way  the  Church  stands  in  one  way 
or  another  behind  the  great  majority  of  the  other 
forums  which  are  now  springing  up  all  over  the 
country.  Most  of  them  are  under  religious  aus- 
pices, held  in  church  buildings,  or  supported  by 
funds  coming  from  religious  men  and  organizations. 
Here  we  can  see  part  of  the  great  plant  of  the 
Church,  which  has  been  built  up  by  the  gifts  of 
generations  of  religious  people,  swung  into  the  serv- 
ice of  these  new  democratic  institutions,  which 
have  so  few  marks  of  traditional  religion  about 
them.  It  takes  real  prophetic  and  sympathetic 
insight  to  see  that  these  forums  are  really  labora- 
tories in  which  the  working  religion  of  the  American 
democracy  is  crystallizing. 


lU  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

The  outfit  of  Ford  Hall  in  personalities  is  also 
in  large  part  derived  from  the  Church.  The  most 
important  personal  agency  in  it  is  George  W. 
Coleman,  and  the  Church  has  been  a  great  factor 
in  his  development.  When  he  was  a  sensitive  and 
diffident  boy,  it  was  the  Sunday-school  and  Church 
which  gave  him  friendship  and  stimulus.  It  was 
the  Christian  Endeavor  Pledge  which  compelled 
him  to  get  up  and  take  part  once  a  week.  Under 
the  stimulus  of  religion,  he  learned  to  hold  himself 
in  control  and  to  become  a  public  speaker  in  spite 
of  himself.  Within  various  organizations  of  re- 
ligion, he  learned  to  handle  public  meetings  and 
to  work  with  men  in  a  friendly  spirit  for  ideal 
ends.  After  years  of  that  kind  of  preparation,  he 
stood  at  the  head  of  the  Social  Union  with  the 
Ford  Bequest  within  reach.  So  he  is  a  gift  of 
the  Church  to  this  new  movement. 

The  same  is  true  of  many  of  his  associates  at 
Ford  Hall.  These  meetings,  and  the  other  work 
clustering  about  them,  are  made  possible  by  the 
trained  ability  and  willingness  to  serve  of  a  large 
group  of  men  and  women,  and  many  of  these  are 
the  product  of  religious  homes  and  of  church  in- 
fluences. This  is  the  case  also  with  many  of  the 
Jews  who  are  the  stanch  friends  of  Ford  Hall. 
Many  of  them  may  have  broken  away  now  from 
the  synagogue  of  their  fathers,  but  they  cannot  get 
away  from  its  religious  influences.  In  their  mental 
make-up  and  their  instinctive  idealism  they  em- 
body the  historic  equipment  of  the  Hebrew  people. 


BY  A  MAN  OF  THE  CHURCH  115 

What  is  true  of  Mr.  Coleman  holds  true  of  most 
of  the  other  men  who  have  initiated  forums  suc- 
cessfully in  other  cities.  Not  all  of  them  will 
succeed.  The  ecclesiastical  mind  and  habit  are  an 
almost  fatal  handicap;  the  religious  spirit  and 
enthusiasm  are  one  of  the  strongest  guarantees  of 
success. 

The  participation  of  organized  religion  in  the 
forum  movement  is  clear  also  in  the  case  of  the 
speakers.  The  ministry  furnishes  a  ready  fund  of 
intellectual  ability  and  training  in  public  speaking 
on  which  the  forums  can  draw.  It  certainly 
argues  that  at  least  some  ministers  have  a  good 
deal  of  adaptability  and  freedom,  if  they  can  fall 
in  with  the  requirements  of  such  miscellaneous 
audiences. 

It  is  not  accidental  that  the  forum  movement 
has  developed  so  swiftly.  It  is  a  product  of  the 
historic  spirit  of  the  American  people.  Ford  Hall 
draws  on  the  heritage  of  New  England.  In  Roman 
Catholic  countries,  audiences  would  hardly  enjoy 
such  freedom  of  expression,  except  in  anti-clerical 
organizations.  On  the  other  hand,  in  Northern 
Europe  there  would  be  no  such  warmth  of  religious 
idealism.  The  spirit  of  the  American  forums  is 
neither  clerical  nor  anti-clerical;  it  is  intellectually 
free,  but  controlled  by  religious  good  will.  This 
combination  is  a  product  of  generations  of  American 
life. 

I  am  not  obeying  denominational  loyalty  only 
when  I  add  that  in  the  case  of  Ford  Hall,  it  may 


116  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

also  be  a  product  of  the  Baptist  spirit.  To  a 
superficial  observer,  the  Baptist  denomination  is 
very  little  in  evidence  there.  But  it  may  have 
contributed  more  than  we  realize.  The  distinctive 
quality  of  the  Baptists  has  been  their  ultra- 
democracy;  their  pride  is  the  contribution  which 
they  have  made  to  religious  liberty.  Denomina- 
tions based  more  firmly  on  religious  authority 
might  not  have  been  so  likely  to  inaugurate  these 
meetings.  Ford  Hall  and  the  other  similar  forums 
are  in  line  with  those  forces  of  the  past  which  have 
democratized  religion  and  have  aided  the  laity  in 
securing  the  right  to  religious  self-expression  within 
the  church.  The  questions  asked  from  the  floor 
are  the  briefest  and  most  compressed  form  in 
which  the  audience  can  react  on  the  statements 
of  the  speaker.  Large  numbers  of  individuals  can 
there  ask  him  to  verify  or  amplify  his  statements 
and  will  certainly  bring  home  to  him  in  which  of 
his  points  his  hearers  were  most  interested.  In 
the  pulpit  a  preacher  is  safe  from  interrogation 
and  can  travel  the  well-worn  paths  pleasing  to 
his  feet.  He  may  not  talk  over  the  heads  of  his 
audience,  but  he  is  likely  to  talk  past  their  heads. 
He  may  prove  over  and  over  again  truths  which 
his  hearers  would  grant  him  with  a  yawn,  and  may 
never  touch  those  questions  which  constitute  the 
gravest  burden  of  their  minds.  Imagine  a  dozen 
people  rising  after  the  ordinary  Sunday  service  to 
question  the  preacher!  It  would  be  a  shock  of 
reality. 


BY  A  MAN  OF  THE   CHURCH  117 

The  religious  life  which  is  working  its  way  in 
these  forums  is  not  cast  in  dogmatic  molds.  It 
is  most  deeply  interested  in  the  moral  and  spiritual 
side  of  secular  life  and  social  problems.  A  speaker 
who  uses  theological  terminology  will  get  little 
response.  The  man  who  can  express  the  social 
longings  and  demands  of  the  people  with  religious 
faith  and  hope  will  get  an  earnest  hearing.  This 
shows  that  the  people  are  moving  in  line  with  the 
historic  development  of  modern  Christianity  toward 
increasing  simplicity  of  doctrine  and  heavier  pres- 
sure on  the  ethical  outcome  of  religion.  Here  we 
can  watch  the  American  people  working  out  anew 
the  higher  meaning  of  life,  seeking  to  understand 
the  trend  and  purpose  of  human  history,  and  laying 
hold  of  those  social  forces  which  seem  to  promise 
salvation  for  the  collective  life  of  our  people. 
When  religion  is  realized  as  a  powerful  support  of 
the  ideas  of  freedom,  justice,  and  brotherhood,  they 
feel  its  value,  and  many  who  thought  they  had 
turned  their  back  on  religion  find  themselves 
returning  to  it  by  new  ways. 


CHAPTER  II 

BY  A  CATHOLIC  PRIEST 

John  A.  Ryan 

MY  relations  to  Ford  Hall  have  been 
invariably  and  progressively  pleasant. 
At  my  first  appearance  there,  in  1912, 
the  questions  that  I  was  called  upon  to  answer 
contained  a  certain  element  of  challenge,  if  not  of 
hostility.  I  have  never  experienced,  and  I  can 
scarcely  hope  to  experience  again,  an  hour  of  such 
energizing  enjoyment  and  stimulating  intellectual 
combat  as  the  question-period  which  followed  my 
lecture  that  evening.  The  questions  addressed  to 
me  on  the  occasion  of  my  second  address,  in  1913, 
were  considerably  less  militant  in  tone,  while  those 
that  I  met  at  the  close  of  my  lecture  in  1915  were 
as  friendly  as  any  reasonable  person  could  expect. 
Moreover,  the  general  attitude  of  the  audience 
progressed  from  a  sort  of  neutral  politeness  at  my 
first  appearance  to  what  looked  to  me  like  genuine 
friendliness  in  1915.  From  all  this  I  conclude 
that  the  Ford  Hall  audiences  are  tolerant  and 
open-minded,  and  ready  to  acknowledge  the  merits 
of  view-points  with  which  they  have  previously  been 
unacquainted,   and   toward   which   they  may  have 


BY  A  CATHOLIC  PRIEST  119 

been  prejudiced.  And  I  draw  the  further  conclu- 
sion that  the  appearance  of  a  CathoHc  priest  on 
the  Ford  Hall  platform  can  have  educational  value 
of  the  highest  kind. 

As  I  understand  the  general  theory  and  pur- 
pose of  the  Ford  Hall  Meetings,  they  aim  at  the 
exposition  and  discussion  of  socio-ethical  problems 
in  the  freest  manner  and  in  a  democratic  spirit, 
with  especial  reference  to  the  needs  of  the  un- 
churched and  the  relatively  unassimilated.  No 
one,  I  take  it,  will  deny  the  value  and  nobility  of 
this  ideal.  Our  age  and  country  are  perplexed 
with  social  questions  of  great  gravity,  pertaining 
to  the  industrial,  civic,  and  domestic  departments 
of  life,  and  with  a  great  variety  of  moral  questions 
affecting  every  field  of  conduct.  That  we  all  need 
instruction  and  light  on  these  problems  is  a  plati- 
tude. That  those  elements  of  our  population 
which  are  unaffiliated  with  a  church,  and  which 
have  not  yet  become  fully  adjusted  to  our  insti- 
tutions stand  in  particular  need  of  enlightenment 
and  guidance,  wull  be  universally  conceded.  That 
the  method  and  atmosphere  of  the  Ford  Hall 
Meetings,  with  their  spirit  of  brotherhood,  their 
recognition  of  the  human  being  as  a  human  being, 
their  opportunities  of  expression  offered  to  every 
person  who  has  a  question  to  ask,  a  suggestion  to 
propose,  or  a  difficulty  to  be  solved,  have  certain 
advantages  which  facilitate  the  attainment  of  the 
main  end,  will  probably  be  admitted  by  any  one 
who  has  studied  the   method   and   atmosphere   at 


120  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

close  range.  That  the  average  regular  attendant 
at  the  meetings  becomes  less  dogmatic  and  more 
tolerant  in  his  social  beliefs,  and  that  many  of 
the  frequenters  experience  a  softening  of  their 
rampant  radicalism,  seems  to  be  entirely  probable. 

In  the  issue  of  Ford  Hall  Folks  which  contained 
the  account  of  my  1915  address,  Mr.  George  W. 
Coleman  declared  that  he  had  never  come  into 
close  personal  contact  with  Catholic  clergymen 
until  he  met  them  on  the  platform  of  Ford  Hall, 
and  he  expressed  an  eager  desire  for  a  greater 
intermingling  of  the  various  elements  of  the  com- 
munity for  the  advancement  of  the  common  life. 
To  this  sentiment  any  intelligent  Catholic  would 
give  hearty  assent.  Because  they  recognize  its 
soundness.  Catholics  are  to  be  found  participating 
in  movements  and  organizations  like  the  National 
Conference  of  Charities  and  Corrections,  the 
American  Association  for  Labor  Legislation,  the 
National  Child  Labor  Committee,  the  National 
Consumers'  League,  and  others  of  the  same  gen- 
eral character. 

In  the  interest  of  effectiveness,  and  to  avert 
mutual  misunderstanding,  however,  certain  prob- 
lems of  method  in  this  social  cooperation  ought 
to  be  frankly  faced.  The  first  of  these  arises 
from  the  fact  that  no  Catholic  can  conscientiously 
become  a  part  of  any  social  or  civic  movement 
which  is  organized  on  a  professedly  religious  basis, 
or  purports  to  be  a  religious  undertaking,  even 
though  the  lines  followed   may  be  entirely   unde- 


i 


BY  A  CATHOLIC  PRIEST  121 

nominational.  Since  the  Catholic  believes  that 
there  is  only  one  true  statement  of  religious  faith, 
and  that  this  statement  can  be  neither  increased 
nor  diminished  without  essentially  falsifying  it,  he 
cannot  possibly  assist  in  promoting  any  religious 
platform  or  program  which  embodies  only  a  partial 
statement,  or  a  least  common  denominator,  of 
religious  principles.  Consequently,  any  forum 
which  professes  to  be  a  religious  meeting  cannot 
command  the  cooperation  of  Catholics.  If  the 
interpretation  of  the  forums  given  by  Reverend 
Edgar  Swan  Wiers  on  pages  80  and  81  of  the 
Report  of  the  1914  Sagamore  Sociological  Confer- 
ence is  correct,  they  are  likely  to  be  regarded  by 
Catholics  with  suspicion,  to  say  the  least.  For  he 
suggests  that  the  forums  might  possibly  "mark 
the  birth  of  a  new  religion",  that  they  make  for 
the  "necessary  democratization  of  our  church  serv- 
ices", and  in  general  that  they  are  succeeding 
where  the  churches  have  failed.  To  the  Catholic, 
all  this  means  that  the  forums  are  putting  them- 
selves forward,  if  not  as  a  church,  at  least  as  a 
virtual  substitute  for  the  church,  so  far  as  the  non- 
church-going  population  is  concerned.  No  Catholic 
can  conscientiously  participate  in  or  encourage  a 
movement  based  upon  this  theory  or  carried  on  in 
this  spirit.  For  the  Catholic  there  is  only  one 
religion,  and  there  are  no  legitimate  substitutes. 

As  to  the  Ford  Hall  Meetings,  my  understanding 
is  that  they  do  not  profess  to  be  religious  services, 
or   a   substitute   for   a   church.     Nevertheless,    the 


122  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

fact  that  they  make  a  special  appeal  to  the  "un- 
churched" suggests  that  they  can  only  with  great 
difficulty  refrain  from  functioning  as  such  a  sub- 
stitute, and  from  being  so  regarded  by  their  regular 
attendants. 

Furthermore,  any  movement  which  takes  as  one 
of  its  formal  and  prominent  aims  the  propagation 
or  the  practical  application  of  moral  principles, 
cannot  easily  be  so  conducted  as  to  warrant  the 
unreserved  cooperation  of  Catholics.  For  the 
Catholic  Church  has  not  only  a  definite  religious 
creed,  but  a  comprehensive  code  of  ethical  doc- 
trine and  practice.  These  affect  every  important 
relation  of  life,  social,  civic,  and  domestic.  Con- 
sequently doctrines  and  theories  advocated  from 
Ford  Hall  and  similar  forums  concerning  the 
ethics  of  industry,  education,  civics,  the  family, 
feminism,  eugenics,  and  many  other  social  ques- 
tions, may  or  may  not  be  in  harmony  with  Catholic 
teaching  in  the  field  of  morals. 

By  way  of  concrete  application  of  the  foregoing 
generalities,  I  would  call  attention  to  the  list  of 
Ford  Hall  speakers  for  the  present  year,  as  pub- 
lished in  Ford  Hall  Folks,  October  18,  1914.  Of 
the  two  dozen  speakers  in  that  list  at  least  six  are 
avowed  Socialists.  Now  the  Catholic  Church  has 
taken  a  stand  of  definite  opposition  to  Socialism 
on  fundamentally  moral  grounds,  and  because 
Socialism  in  its  full  acceptation  has  a  whole  phi- 
losophy of  life  which  is  contrary  to  her  philosophy 
of  life.     The  fact  that  the  managers  of  Ford  Hall 


BY  A  CATHOLIC  PRIEST  123 

may  not  themselves  accept  Socialism,  that  they 
may  merely  intend  to  give  a  hearing  to  men  who 
see  problems  of  life  from  the  Socialist  view-point, 
is  not  sufficient  to  reassure  the  loyal  Catholic. 
The  latter  looks  upon  such  hearings  as  at  best  a 
waste  of  time,  and  at  worst  the  propagation  of 
injurious  social  and  moral  errors.  He  no  more 
believes  that  they  are  necessary  or  desirable  than 
he  believes  that  hearings  to  attacks  upon  marriage, 
civil  government,  or  the  multiplication  table,  are 
necessary  or  desirable.  To  be  a  little  more  specific, 
I  would  say  that  the  letter  of  Bouck  White,  pub- 
lished in  the  issue  of  Ford  Hall  Folks  referred  to 
above,  would  strike  any  discerning  Catholic  as 
condemning  beforehand  any  message  that  its 
author  might  have  to  give,  and  putting  under 
suspicion  any  organization  that  would  give  him 
a  hearing. 

I  have  written  thus  frankly  concerning  Ford 
Hall  from  the  Catholic  view-point  because  I  gladly 
recognize  the  sincerity  and  high  purpose  of  its 
promoters,  and  because  I  think  that  they  would 
want  to  understand  its  limitations  from  that  view- 
point. Just  how  these  limitations  might  be  ob- 
viated, or  whether  they  can  be  obviated  at  all, 
are  questions  which  spatial  and  other  considera- 
tions render  impossible  of  discussion  at  this  time. 
In  any  case,  it  is  something  to  have  the  situation 
stated. 


CHAPTER  III 
BY  A  RABBI 

Stephen  S.  Wise 

FORD  HALL  as  witnessed  by  a  Rabbi"  is 
of  rather  doubtful  content.  Does  it  im- 
ply that  even  a  rabbi  may  be  expected  to 
recognize  the  obvious?  Or  am  I  to  register  my 
personal  reaction  to  the  Ford  Hall  Forum?  But  a 
true  reaction  is  spontaneous,  unconscious,  elusive. 
None  the  less,  I  can  speak  with  deepfelt  apprecia- 
tion of  the  contribution  of  Ford  Hall  to  our  spiritual 
commonwealth,  of  its  effect,  as  I  have  observed  it, 
upon  a  very  considerable  number  of  my  fellow- 
Jews  who  make  up  the  constituency,  —  brotherhood 
were  a  more  apt  term,  —  of  Ford  Hall. 

Herein  I  take  it,  if  at  all,  lies  the  importance  of 
learning  a  rabbi's  estimate  of  the  influence  ex- 
erted upon  his  people  by  Ford  Hall.  For  large 
numbers  of  Jews  crowd  into  the  Boston  Forum  and 
into  every  Open  Forum  of  the  country.  Some- 
times, in  facing  Ford  Hall,  I  have  felt  that  no 
synagogue  or  temple  in  Boston  calls  together  as 
many  Jewish  men  and  women  as  may  be  found 
every  Sunday  night  at  Ford  Hall.  As  I  have 
looked  about  me,  I  have  at  times  been  half  in- 


I 


BY  A  RABBI  1^5 

clined  to  suspect  that  I  must  be  in  a  synagogue, 
—  including  of  course  a  goodly  sprinkling  of 
Christians,  or  a  sprinkling  of  good  Christians, — 
though  never  forgetting  that  I  stood  in  the  pres- 
ence of  that  rare  being  in  Christendom,  paraphras- 
ing Emerson's  mordant  question,  a  real  Christian, 
George  Coleman. 

There  are  obvious  reasons  that  move  my  people 
to  accept  the  catholic  hospitality  of  Ford  Hall. 
Theirs,  —  ours,  —  is  that  intellectual  alertness  and 
combativeness  which  find  an  outlet  under  the  aus- 
pices of  a  forum.  Again,  rightly  or  wrongly,  and 
for  reasons  the  elucidation  of  which,  if  possible  at 
all,  would  take  us  too  far  afield,  the  spiritual 
hunger  of  the  Jew  is  often  left  unsatisfied  by 
temple  or  synagogue  and  in  his  quest  he  finds 
Ford   Hall,   which  in  some  part  answers  his  need. 

For  one  thing  the  temper  of  Ford  Hall  makes  an 
appeal  to  the  Jew,  one  of  whose  ancient  sayings 
is  in  effect:  I  am  ready  to  learn  from  whosoever 
can  teach.  The  Jew  dares  face  the  truth,  or 
rather  truth  as  revealed  to  and  through  men.  I 
would  have  my  fellow-Jews  hear  every  reverent 
truth-seeker.  That  which  is  true  they  must  not 
be  denied  the  opportunity  to  hear,  and  the  false 
they  will  in  good  time  reject.  But,  above  all 
things,  they  must  be  free,  as  free  they  are,  to  hear, 
to  determine,  to  choose. 

Again,  Ford  Hall  is  an  unique  embodiment  of 
the  American  spirit  to  which  Jews  are  peculiarly 
responsive:    that  every  man  is  to  be  heard   who 


126  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

speaks  the  truth  as  he  sees  it  with  reverence  for 
truth  and  with  good  will  towards  men.  Ford  Hall 
is  tolerance  incarnate,  —  not  that  intolerable  toler- 
ance which  merely  tolerates  the  statement  of 
differing  views,  but  that  broader,  finer  tolerance, 
eager  to  listen  appreciatively  to  the  wise  and  the 
true,  and  genially  rather  than  scornfully,  even  to 
the  less   wise. 

Ford  Hall  means  something  more  to  the  Jew, 
whether  on  its  platform  or  of  its  constituency. 
It  is  a  place  in  which  every  man  may  render  an 
account  of  the  faith  that  is  in  him  rather  than  a 
place  which  calls  to  every  individual  to  surrender 
his  faith.  It  is  a  forum  or  congress  for  the  rev- 
erent presentation  of  varying  views,  not  for  the 
mush  of  compromise  and  concession.  Its  unspoken 
insistence  is  that  the  other  side  be  heard,  but  it 
will  not  yield  to  the  folly  of  that  "otherism"  decried 
by  Emerson,  which  is  intolerance  solely  of  one's  own. 

Ford  Hall  aims  to  stress  agreements,  but  not  less 
to  urge  the  unities  which  underlie  difference  and 
disagreement.  Ford  Hall  sets  store  by  unity  of 
spirit  rather  than  uniformity.  It  holds  that  a  real 
fraternalism  may  arise  out  of  the  consciousness  of 
differing  judgments  howsoever  tenaciously  cher- 
ished, that  fraternalism  which  grows  out  of  Milton's 
"brotherly  dissimilitudes."  In  other  words,  the 
primary  aim  of  Ford  Hall  is  not  a  fusing  and 
merging  of  convictions,  but  a  furtherance  of  indi- 
vidual loyalties  real  and  worth  while.  The  weak- 
ening of  such  loyalties  is  in  the  interest  of  confusion 


BY  A  RABBI  127 

alone.  Their  strengthening  enriches  the  whole 
through  fortifying  and  exalting  the  intellectual 
and  spiritual  integrity  of  the  individual. 

Putting  the  case  concretely,  I  cannot  conceive 
of  Ford  Hall  saying  or  doing  aught  to  turn  my 
people  away  from  that  which  is  best  and  finest  in 
their  life.  But  I  have  felt  that  Ford  Hall  renders 
to  my  younger  brothers  the  high  service  of  moving 
them  rightly  to  revaluate  the  deeply  significant 
things  of  their  Jewish  heritage.  Ofttimes  men 
leave  their  homes  and  are  helped  by  finding  that 
the  world  honors  the  things  by  them  possessed 
but  little  prized.  And  there  is  yet  another  and 
subtler  reaction.  All  the  world  loves  one  loyal  to 
loyalties,  and  my  younger  brothers  and  sisters  have 
come  to  feel  that  within  the  walls  of  Ford  Hall. 

It  violates  no  personal  confidence  to  tell  that 
in  the  two  decades  and  more  of  my  ministry,  I 
have  never  known  of  a  more  striking  example  of  a 
member  of  the  House  of  Israel  long  recreant  and 
won  back  to  loyalty  than  came  before  me  in  con- 
nection with  a  Ford  Hall  Meeting.  Under  the 
caption  "^\Tiat's  Wrong  with  the  Jew?"  I  had 
dealt  with  the  sin  of  self-contempt  and  self- 
obliteration.  I  had  pleaded  with  the  Jew  for  a 
high-souled  reverence  rather  than  a  low  self- 
disregard,  for  a  complete  self-knowledge  rather 
than  woeful  ignorance  of  the  splendor  of  Israel's 
story,  for  a  noble  self-mastery  rather  than  a  policy 
of  ignoble  drift.  After  the  meeting,  an  earnest, 
thoughtful  young  woman  said  to  me:    "I  have  long 


128  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

denied  and  hidden  tlie  fact  that  I  am  a  Jewess.  I 
shall  do  so  no  longer.  In  the  morning,  I  shall 
proclaim  my  Jewishness  to  every  one  in  the  home 
in  which  I  dwell."  And  she  did,  she  wrote,  after 
the  wracking  vigil  of  the  night.  This  self-conquest 
of  a  Jewish  soul,  this  triumph  of  self -reverence, 
was  achieved  not  in  the  Synagogue  from  which 
this  gifted  young  woman  had  long  felt  herself 
estranged,  but  in  Ford  Hall.  Moreover,  if  my 
memory  serves  me  aright,  the  non-Jewish  folk  at 
that  meeting  heard  with  outspoken  approval  the 
appeal  of  a  rabbi  to  his  people  to  rise  to  the  dig- 
nity of  fitly  assessing  their  priceless  inheritance. 

Such  is  Ford  Hall  as  witnessed  by  a  rabbi.  It 
bids  men  seek  the  truth  reverently  and  speak  it 
bravely.  It  shows  forth  that  men  may  frankly 
discuss  differing  view-points  in  the  spirit  of  un- 
lessened  good  will  and  fraternalism.  Again,  far 
from  bidding  men  abate  their  individual  judgments 
and  convictions,  it  would  have  these  cherished 
persistently,  not  fused  into  uniformity  but  feder- 
ated into  the  bond  of  highest  unity. 

Best  of  all,  the  note  which  Ford  Hall  never 
wearies  of  striking  is  the  note  of  service.  Life 
may  be  given  to  truth's  quest,  but  truth  must 
be  directed  toward  the  service  of  life.  Right  think- 
ing and  right  believing  must  utter  themselves 
through  right  living.  I  wonder  whether  Ford  Hall 
does  not  aim  to  bid  men,  Seek  the  truth  that  ye 
may  be  free  to  serve.  Through  freedom  to  the 
truth,  —  that  service  is  life! 


CHAPTER  IV 
BY  A  POPULAR  LECTURER 

Charles  Zuehlin 

IF  Boston  is  a  State  of  Mind,  Ford  Hall  must 
be  the  capital.  Certainly  there  is  nowhere 
else  in  Boston  such  an  eager,  restless  desire 
to  compass  knowledge  and  human  welfare,  —  not 
in  the  venerable  Lowell  Institute,  not  in  the  mauso- 
leum of  books  on  Copley  Square,  not  in  the  society 
of  Orientalists  and  antiquarians  at  the  Museum  of 
Fine  Arts,  nor  even  in  the  aggregation  of  antago- 
nistic specialists  that  throng  Huntington  Avenue 
from  the  Mother  Church  to  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  and  the  Harvard  Medical 
School.  Ford  Hall  is  not  therefore  scientific  or  a 
seat  of  culture.  It  is  rather  an  intellectual  and 
emotional  power-house,  sending  out  currents  to 
vitalize  the  wireless  service  of  the  municipality. 
Ford  Hall  is  not  unbiased,  but  it  is  tolerant;  it  is 
self-conscious,  but  at  the  same  time  open-armed; 
cosmopolitan,  but  still  organic.  It  seems  to  have 
agreed  that  "the  truth  shall  make  you  free." 

One  who  has  lectured  for  many  years  to  all 
kinds  of  audiences  learns  many  things  about 
auditors.     They  come  together  usually  by  effective 


130  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

organization,  not  because  of  the  charms  of  a  matinee 
idol.  They  Hsten  with  intelHgence  in  proportion 
as  they  are  trained  not  in  refinement,  but  in  atten- 
tion. They  respond  when  they  are  not  accus- 
tomed to  repression.  Western  audiences  are  more 
indulgent  to  radicalism  than  eastern  audiences. 
New  England  audiences  are  more  appreciative  of 
humor  than  middle  western  audiences.  Southern 
audiences  demand  the  florid  oratory  that  bores 
northern  audiences.  The  zenith  of  audiences  is  not 
the  political  mass  meeting,  but  the  high  school 
assembly.  The  tired  teacher  represents  zero  in 
responsiveness.  The  tired  business  man  responds 
enthusiastically  if  there  are  no  women  present,  for 
he  is  only  untrammeled  when  with  his  kind,  and 
he  finds  an  instructive  lecture  so  much  more  in- 
telligible than  he  thought  he  would  that  he  is  one 
of  the  easiest  of  marks,  if  the  lecture  is  sugared 
with  flattery. 

What  are  the  characteristics  of  a  Ford  Hall 
audience?  It  is  organized.  There  is  a  common 
spirit,  but  it  is  not  an  accident.  It  is  cultivated 
by  wise  management.  Yet  the  auditors  are  spon- 
taneous, for  the  majority  are  not  accustomed  to 
ritualistic  services  in  which  they  try  to  put  them- 
selves into  an  atmosphere  of  the  past.  By  long 
training  and  enthusiasm  for  knowledge,  they  are 
exceptionally  intelligent  listeners,  although  there  is 
a  sprinkling  of  those  who  come  to  instruct  rather 
than  to  learn.  One  of  the  best  tributes  one  can  pay 
to  the  Ford  Hall  audience  is  that  it  extends  ironic 


BY  A  POPULAR  LECTURER  131 

indulgence  to  the  self-appointed  instructors  on  the 
floor.  It  is  not  fooled  by  them;  it  knows  in  ad- 
vance what  they  will  say,  but  it  accepts  them  as 
part  of  the  handicap  of  democracy. 

The  audience  has  much  more  humor  than  some 
of  the  auditors.  It  combines  the  New  England 
enjoyment  of  wit  with  the  westerner's  love  of 
radicalism.  The  latter  preponderates,  however,  as 
the  audience  is  more  industrial  than  Yankee.  Its 
sense  of  humor  is  not  quite  so  keen  as  that  of  an 
old  New  England  Lyceum,  but  its  desire  for  the 
truth  is  much  keener.  Ford  Hall  cannot  be  de- 
luded by  horticultural  experts,  although  it  is  not 
oblivious  to  fine  phrasing  and  imagery.  It  loves 
romance  and  imaginative  flight,  but  its  preference 
is  for  hard  knocks.  Yet  it  is  no  more  immune  to 
praise  than  the  rest  of  us.  Rarely  does  one  see 
weary  auditors  at  Ford  Hall,  and  they  must  have 
much  more  excuse  than  most  leisure  class  audiences. 

The  fault  of  Ford  Hall  is  in  its  very  excuse  for 
being.  The  people  like  to  range  over  the  wide 
fields  of  human  interest;  they  like  to  hear  repre- 
sentatives of  all  faiths,  but  they  also  like  to  have 
them  labeled.  It  is  hard  to  imagine  the  kind  of 
person  who  would  dare  to  address  Ford  Hall  and 
not  find  a  kindly  reception.  But  there  is  a  sense 
of  dissipation  as  one  visits  this  big,  prompt,  vital 
crowd,  year  by  year.  It  does  represent  intelligent, 
thoughtful  receptiveness,  but  it  does  not  demand 
mental  discipline.  The  audience  that  is  trained  to 
follow  a  course  of  lectures  in  the  unfolding  of  a 


132  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

great  idea  or  cause  gets  what  Ford  Hall  still  lacks. 
It  is  not  so  ineffectual  as  H.  G.  Wells  rightly  says 
Boston  is,  but  it  is  not  clearly  moving  anywhere, 
year  by  year.  The  compensation  for  this  comes 
in  the  intensification  of  fellowship  that  one  finds 
at  Ford  Hall.  It  is  not  merely  an  audience:  it  is 
a  spirit.  It  is  by  no  means  wholly  socialistic,  but 
is  almost  wholly  democratic. 

Perhaps  one  may  say  a  professional  word  of 
appreciation  regarding  a  condition  the  audience 
may  not  understand.  The  auditorium  is  ideal  at 
Ford  Hall,  the  acoustics  perfect,  the  audience  just 
the  right  size.  The  Cooper  Union  auditorium  is  a 
sprawling,  pillared  room  in  which  the  audience  is 
knit  together  by  the  purpose  of  the  gathering  and 
the  intense  Eastsidishness  of  the  constituency.  The 
Sunday  Evening  Club  in  Chicago  is  an  evangelical 
gathering  that  might  meet  anywhere.  It  is  held 
together  by  a  masterly  organization  and  a  multi- 
tudinous choir,  not  by  the  congregation's  desire 
for  the  truth.  They  get  no  chance  to  betray  that. 
The  Houston  Municipal  Forum  has  the  advantage 
of  a  municipal  auditorium  and  a  public  subsidy,  but 
the  place  is  big  and  forbidding,  and  there  is  no 
more  consciousness  than  at  Chicago.  The  litter 
of  forums  that  Ford  Hall  is  scattering  over  New 
England  promise  to  be  worthy  progeny.  They 
have  caught  the  spirit.  As  they  perfect  their  or- 
ganizations in  appropriate  places,  and  the  people 
are  educated  to  a  common  feeling,  if  not  a  common 
mind,   they   will   reveal   the   secret   of   Ford   Hall 


BY  A  POPULAR  LECTURER  133 

success:    the  people  love  the  leader;    they  love  the 
place;   they  love  the  idea. 

The  subtle  fitness  of  things  that  rationalism  and 
haste  obscure  finds  happy  expression  in  Ford  Hall. 
It  is  well  that  it  is  on  the  hill,  not  under  the  shadow 
of  the  State  House  but  in  the  glow  of  its  radiant 
dome.  If  it  is  not  on  Beacon  Street,  it  is  a  beacon 
set  on  a  hill,  and  the  hill  side  of  Beacon  Street  means 
more  to  the  future  than  the  water  side.  Between 
the  Men's  City  Club  and  the  Women's  City  Club; 
in  the  thick  of  the  official  homes  of  religion  that 
have  clustered  for  protection  on  the  hills  from  the 
hallowed  past;  neighbor  to  the  open  fields  of  free 
speech  on  the  Common;  reaching  out  the  right 
hand  of  fellowship  to  Faneuil  Hall,  Ford  Hall  is 
the  needed  forum  whence  the  citizens  "of  no  mean 
city"  may  go  forth  to  transform  the  historic 
Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts  into  the  prophetic 
commonwealth  of  cooperation. 


CHAPTER  V 
BY    A    SOCIAL   MYSTIC 

Stanton  Coil 

I  WAS  brooding  upon  the  Ford  Hall  audience 
the  day  after  I  first  addressed  it,  when  there 
came  into  my  mind  some  lines  from  George 
Eliot's  "Spanish  Gypsy"  which  we  often  use  at 
my  Ethical  Church  in  London  as  an  opening 
benediction : 

Ours  is  a  faith  taught  by  no  priest. 

But  by  our  beating  hearts;  the  fidelity  of  men 

Who  in  the  flash  of  eyes,  the  clasp  of  hands. 

Nay,  in  the  silent  bodily  presence,  feel  the  mystic  stirrings 

Of  a  common  life  that  makes  the  many  one! 

I  had  a  deep  sense  that  everybody  present  felt 
at  home.  Now  there  are  certain  persons  who  define 
religion  as  "the  home-sickness  of  the  soul";  but 
to  call  that  religion  is  like  saying  that  hunger  is 
food.     Religion  is  the  Home  Feeling  of  the  Soul. 

Except  in  Salvation  Army  testimony  meetings, 
I  have  found  no  such  joy  of  the  spirit  as  I  sensed 
at  Ford  Hall.  And  it  was  the  same  joy  in  the  pres- 
ence of  a  Power  that  renews  life  and  enhances  its 
worth.  But  the  difference  between  a  Salvation 
Army  and  a  Ford  Hall  Meeting  is  as  striking  as 
the  resemblance  of  the  two;   and  it  was  the  differ- 


BY  A  SOCIAL  MYSTIC  135 

ence  that  had  brought  to  my  memory  George 
Eliot's  lines.  At  Ford  Hall  nobody  is  over  the 
audience.  The  lecturer  is  not;  at  least,  the  night 
I  spoke,  I  addressed  not  pupils  but  judges.  Mr. 
Coleman  is  not;  he  was  only  their  representative  and 
spokesman.  It  was  quite  evident,  too,  that  there  was 
no  God  over  them;  and  yet  it  was  equally  evident, 
to  a  social  mystic  like  me,  that  God  was  astir 
rapturously  in  and  among  them,  as  if  He  also  were  at 
home  there.  Theirs  is  a  faith  taught  by  no  priest  but 
by  their  beating  hearts.  They  feel  the  mystic  stir- 
rings of  a  Common  Life  that  makes  the  many  one. 

Such  being  my  explanation  of  all  experience  of 
religion.  Ford  Hall  was  no  surprise,  no  revelation 
to  me  of  something  new.  It  was  only  another 
instance  of  a  universal  truth.  The  people  who 
are  shocked  at  Ford  Hall,  or  count  it  purely  secu- 
lar, or  are  puzzled  by  it  are  only  those  who  imagine 
that  they  themselves  have  a  monopoly  of  God. 
And  to  those  who  know  the  Baptist  denomination 
as  well  as  I  do,  it  is  the  most  natural  thing  in  the 
world  that  out  of  John  Bunyan's  church  should 
come  this  forum  outburst  of  religious  prophesying. 

Such  religious  meetings  must  be  started  by  all 
the  denominations  in  America,  if,  as  I  believe,  the 
Common  Will,  the  Reason  in  us  all,  the  Universal 
Heart  that  beats  in  every  human  breast,  is  the 
Power  that  redeems,  is  the  source  of  inward  strength 
and  peace.  The  unifying  spirit  of  any  group  of 
human  beings,  drawn  together  in  devotion  to  the 
ideals  of  life,  is  God;    that  is,  the  Will  that  makes 


136  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  IVIAKING 

the  many  one  in  vision  and  desire  is  the  All-holy 
and  the  supreme  Reality.  If  this  be  so,  there 
cannot  be  too  many  forums,  for  they  give  the  Com- 
mon Will,  the  Universal  Heart,  a  chance  to  speak, 
to  stir,  and  to  create. 

This  right  of  the  Common  Mind  to  speak  out,  how- 
ever inarticulately,  whatever  it  sincerely  believes,  has 
been  too  long  suppressed.     God  has  been  gagged. 

The  free  discussion  that  follows  the  lecture  is 
the  significant  thing  at  Ford  Hall.  When  there 
have  been  such  discussions  on  all  the  fundamental 
problems  of  life  and  religion  in  all  the  churches  of 
America  on  every  Sunday  evening  for  a  whole 
century,  then  the  nation  will  be  filled  with  the 
Spirit  of  God  and  every  man  will  walk  upheld  by 
Him,  and  there  will  be  no  more  stealing  by  indi- 
viduals nor  by  States,  and  no  more  wars  or  even 
rumors  of  war. 

Many  have  been  chiefly  struck  by  the  feeling  of 
fellowship  that  prevails  in  the  Ford  Hall  Meetings. 
But  we  must  always  remember  that  this  feeling 
is  only  derived  from  the  practice  of  frank  and  full 
liberty  of  debate,  and  from  that  deep  respect  for  the 
insight  and  sincerity  of  every  human  being,  which 
must  have  instituted  debate  in  a  religious  meeting  as 
an  instrument  of  spiritual  revelation  and  communion. 
The  founders  of  democratic  states,  centuries  ago, 
saw  the  importance  of  free  discussion  on  all  polit- 
ical questions,  if  the  State  is  to  stand  secure  for- 
ever and  to  grow  with  experience  and  with  change 
of  circumstances.     But  in  the  Church,  scarcely  one 


BY  A  SOCIAL  MYSTIC  137 

man  in  a  hundred  thousand  as  yet  sees  that  free 
and  continual  debate  upon  the  foundations  of  reli- 
gion is  needed,  if  faith  is  to  be  strengthened  and 
to  grow  into  an  actual  knowledge  of  God.  Mr. 
Coleman  is  one  who  sees  that  discussion  is  as  essen- 
tial to  organized  religious  life  as  is  public  prayer, 
or  worship,  or  the  reading  of  the  Bible. 

If  I  am  correct  in  my  sensing  of  the  significance 
of  the  Ford  Hall  Forum,  it  should  become  evan- 
gelistic, and  go  forth  throughout  the  country  to 
champion  discussion  in  religion  as  a  spiritual 
discipline.  It  should  teach  that  continual  delibera- 
tion on  the  fundamentals  of  faith  is  necessary  to 
the  moral  life  of  a  social  democracy  like  America. 
It  should  demonstrate  that  free  debate,  instead  of 
dividing  men  up  into  sects  and  increasing  their 
disagreements,  draws  them  together  by  disclosing 
the  Unifying  Reason,  the  Common  Will,  and  the 
One  Heart  which  is  alive  at  the  inmost  center  of 
every  human  being. 

But  a  warning  may  be  in  place.  Ford  Hall  is 
an  experiment  along  an  untried  line.  It  is  new. 
May  it  not  on  that  account  be  in  some  respects 
somewhat  crude?  Is  it  not  possible  that  this  new 
instrument  of  religious  life,  —  discussion,  —  may 
become  highly  developed.'^  May  not  debate  become 
a  great  and  beautiful  art,  on  a  par  in  dignity  with 
prayer  and  ritual,  with  music  and  architecture,  with 
verse  and  rythmic  prose.^^  Indeed,  until  it  becomes 
such  will  it  be  able  adequately  to  express  the  organic 
life  of  a  democratic  nation? 


CHAPTER  VI 

BY   A    COSMOPOLITAN 

Edward  A.  Steiner 

THERE  are  not  very  many  assemblies 
where  humanity  fuses  into  anything  like 
a  complete  unit.  Even  under  the  spell 
of  some  great  personality,  the  more  sophisticated 
group  will  remain  fairly  conscious  of  itself  and 
successfully  resist  the  unifying  power  of  a  great 
emotion. 

The  Ford  Hall  family  is  the  most  heterogeneous 
group  I  have  ever  had  the  privilege  of  addressing. 
It  is  a  racial,  religious,  and  social  conglomerate, 
containing  the  most  radically  opposed  elements 
thrown  together  in  perfect  void  and  confusion.  If 
everyone  would  speak  in  his  own  tongue.  Babel 
would  be  out-babeled;  and  if  each  would  confess 
his  own  faith,  it  would  serve  as  a  laboratory  in  the 
study  of  comparative  religions;  and  should  each 
announce  his  own  remedy  for  the  world's  social 
and  economic  ills,  no  height  or  depth  would  remain 
unsounded.  I  have  seen  this  group  blending  and 
melting  into  perfect  unity  under  the  power  of  one 
thought,  —  that  of  Brotherhood.  It  is  a  rare 
privilege  to  witness   this,  especially  in   these  days 


BY  A  COSMOPOLITAN  139 

when  an  age-old  dream  seems  but  a  dream  and  of 
sucli  stuff  as  dreams  are  made  of. 

Here  I  realized  how  great  and  real  the  problem 
of  race  is,  how  deep  the  prejudices  are  rooted,  and 
how  prominent  the  differences.  The  audience  is  a 
sample  of  the  Creator's  color  scheme,  which  in 
the  realm  of  the  human  is  so  inharmonious  and 
clashing.  Here  too  one  sees  the  power  of  traditions 
surviving  in  a  new  age  and  a  new  country,  and  how 
unyielding  they  are  even  before  indisputable, 
scientific  facts. 

But  here  too  are  revealed  the  inner  depths.  Here 
men  lay  bare  their  souls,  and  one  cannot  help  but 
see  how  much  more  vital  are  the  things  in  which 
men  are  alike  than  those  in  which  they  differ. 
Above  all,  one  can  learn  here  how  upon  a  certain 
height  all  differences  disappear,  and  men  become 
one,  —  supremely  human.  The  New  England  busi- 
ness man  who  presides  lifts  himself  into  complete 
unity  with  this  varied,  unfused  mass  by  his  passion 
for  the  human,  and  he  becomes  the  brother  of  all. 
The  Jew  sees  in  him  the  Jew  at  his  best:  the 
Catholic  gets  from  him  a  taste  of  real  catholicity: 
the  Italian  sees  in  him  a  kinsman  who  differs  from 
him  merely  by  the  restraint  of  his  emotions.  Each 
man  can  see  here  the  best  of  his  race  in  men  and 
women  who  are  not  of  his  race,  and  the  best  of  his 
creed  in  those  who  do  not  profess  it. 

For  me,  it  has  always  been  the  hardest  audience 
to  address,  for  here  I  felt  the  world-hunger  for  truth 
challenging    every    half    truth.     Here,    too,    I    felt 


140  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

humanity's  passion  for  unity,  the  eagerness  for  it, 
and  yet  understood  the  difficulty  of  realizing  it, 
even  in  the  lives  of  those  of  us  who  most  ardently 
preach  it.  For  weeks  after  I  have  done  my  task 
there,  I  can  feel  my  own  message  challenging  me, 
and  my  own  faith  in  the  thing  for  which  I  plead 
wavering,  and  then  faith  comes  back  more  strongly 
when  I  remember  the  splendid  response  to  the 
highest  hopes  to  which  my  faith  can  wing  itself, 
made  by  this  mass  of  men  and  women,  most  of 
them  the  victims  of  prejudice  and  hate  and  of  that 
unbrotherliness  which  is  the  source  of  wars  and  of 
all  those  evils  related  to  it. 

As  a  splendid  challenge  to  the  world's  faith  in 
brotherhood,  Ford  Hall  is  quite  worth  while,  for 
here  has  been  accomplished  in  a  small  degree  what 
some  of  us  are  hoping  and  dreaming  shall  come  to 
the  world  at  large,  and  that  which  must  come  into 
our  own  lives  first  before  it  can  grip  the  world. 

I  have  never  been  in  Ford  Hall  as  a  mere  spec- 
tator, but  sitting  on  the  platform  and  facing  a 
singing  or  listening  audience,  I  felt  myself  enrapt  by 
the  all-human,  and  by  it  so  lifted  above  the  mere 
human  that  I  felt  the  touch  of  the  All-Father.  The 
great  Spirit  seemed  to  fill  the  place,  and  I  knew 
that  He  was  yearning  for  the  new  Pentecost.  May 
it  speedily  come  to  this  strife- weary  world. 


CHAPTER  VII 

BY   A   COLLEGE   PRESIDENT 

William  H.  P.  Faunce 

THE  Ford  Hall  Movement  is  one  of  the 
most  successful  attempts  in  our  genera- 
tion to  educate  the  people  of  a  large  city. 
Not  propaganda,  not  evangelism,  not  proselytism, 
not  particular  reforms,  but  education  is  its  prime 
object.  Hence  its  results  are  not  to  be  measured 
by  any  single  address,  any  one  evening,  but  by  the 
lifting  of  the  community  consciousness  through  a 
series  of  years. 

Like  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association 
Movement,  it  owes  its  success  to  the  fact  that  it 
has  steered  clear  of  all  the  men  who  have  wanted 
to  capture  it,  exploit  it,  and  harness  it  to  some 
private  platform.  The  Socialists  would  have  been 
glad  to  capture  it  and  shape  it  to  their  specific 
purpose.  The  political  orators  would  eagerly  utilize 
such  a  platform  as  a  political  engine.  The  evan- 
gehst  would  gladly  minimize  the  educational  ele- 
ment at  Ford  Hall,  and  make  every  service  a  part 
of  "decision  day."  The  agnostic  would  gladly 
distribute  his  literature  to  such  an  assembly  and 
eagerly   proclaim   his   ignorance.     But  just   as   we 


142  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE   MAKING 

cannot  allow  our  schools  and  colleges  to  be  per- 
verted to  partisan  or  sectarian  ends,  so  Ford  Hall 
could  not  "give  up  to  a  party  what  was  meant 
for  mankind."  It  seeks  primarily  to  educate  the 
people  in  the  discovery  of  truth  and  the  immediate 
application  of  truth  to  life. 

In  this  educational  process  it  has  wisely  adopted 
the  Socratic  method  of  question  and  answer.  We 
must  grant  at  once  that  Ford  Hall  education  faces 
certain  great  difficulties.  It  cannot  grade  its 
students.  It  cannot  be  sure  of  the  same  class  from 
evening  to  evening.  It  cannot  have  final  examina- 
tions with  certificates  of  graduation.  But  it  has 
all  that  Socrates  had  when  he  visited  the  workshops 
of  ancient  Athens,  or  argued  with  young  Greeks 
in  the  public  square.  He  delighted  in  the  crowd. 
"Fields  and  trees  won't  teach  me  anything,"  he 
said;  "the  life  of  the  streets  will."  Wherever  he 
found  a  crowd,  there  he  found  a  prize.  At  once 
he  started  in  with  some  unusual  proposition,  some 
ironic  suggestion,  some  pungent,  unsettling  inquiry, 
and  soon  a  group  of  men  were  all  agog  with  novel 
discussions,  which  searched  the  foundations  of  the 
social  and  the  moral  order.  By  opening  their 
mouths,  the  people  opened  their  minds.  In  the 
swift  give  and  take  of  frank  debate,  truth  was 
separated  from  error,  sophistry  was  exposed,  and 
the  popular  mind  was  both  clarified  and  concen- 
trated. 

When  President  Garfield  said  a  true  college  might 
be  "an  old  log  with  Mark  Hopkins  on  one  end  and 


BY  A  COLLEGE  PRESIDENT  143 

a  student  on  the  other",  he  was  returning  to  the 
Socratic  ideal.  WTien  Francis  Way  land  was  the 
President  of  Brown  University,  and  his  voice  was 
heard  'round  the  world,  the  institution  had  three 
buildings  and  a  total  endowment  of  thirty-one 
thousand  dollars.  But  there  are  men  now  living 
who  trace  their  whole  career  to  some  searching 
inquiry  or  some  challenging  paradox  uttered  by 
Doctor  Wayland. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  superb  college 
lecture-rooms  in  which  the  students  are  half-asleep, 
and  lectures  are  so  polished  and  perfected  as  to  be 
"icily  regular,  splendidl}'  null."  I  do  not  say  that 
many  years  of  attendance  at  Ford  Hall  could  take 
the  place  of  attendance  at  a  school.  Far  from  it. 
But  I  do  say  that  the  essential  element  in  all 
education,  —  the  clash  of  minds,  the  challenging  of 
error,  the  solving  of  mental  problems  by  discussion 
and  experiment,  —  lies  at  the  basis  of  the  Ford  Hall 
Movement. 

We  have  altogether  too  many  lectures,  addresses, 
and  sermons  with  no  chance  for  reaction  on  the 
part  of  the  hearers.  This  is  the  defect  of  the  other- 
wise excellent  Chautauqua  assemblies.  At  a  sum- 
mer Chautauqua,  one  can  meet  scores  of  persons 
who  are  attending  two  or  three  lectures  or  concerts 
each  day  for  some  weeks,  persons  as  absorbent  as 
blotting-paper  and  as  destitute  of  effective  character. 
This  is  the  defect  of  many  women's  clubs,  which 
listen  endlessly  to  talkers,  and  preserve  a  sponge- 
like attitude  toward  them  all.     This  was  the  defect 


144  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

of  the  excellent  "lyeeum  lectures",  so  popular  in 
the  last  generation.  The  audience  listened,  ap- 
plauded, and  went  home.  This  is  the  defect  of 
modern  preaching,  which  too  often  gives  the  im- 
pression of  hopeless  finality,  with  no  chance  for  the 
meeting  of  individual  difficulties  afterward.  Ford 
Hall  avoids  mere  desultory  debate  by  giving  each 
speaker  time  to  develop  his  own  message  without 
interruption.  But  when  the  speaker  is  through, 
the  assembly  refuses  to  go  home.  It  is  electric 
with  expectancy,  eager  to  tackle  its  teacher,  and 
the  obscure  young  man  in  the  front  seat  with  the 
unpronounceable  name  may  flash  out  an  idea  that 
will  severely  test  the  wisest  man  on  the  platform. 

No  one  who  has  once  been  present  at  one  of  those 
Sunday-evening  grapplings  can  ever  forget  it.  The 
crowded  hall,  the  heterogeneous  brotherhood,  the 
keen  appreciation  of  the  music,  the  swift  response 
to  appeal  (which  may  lead  to  applause  instead  of 
"Amens"  after  prayer),  the  vigorous  retort,  the 
merciless  aversion  to  dullness,  the  divergent  minds 
all  united  in  social  aspiration,  —  all  that  is  unique 
and  impressive.  The  easy  mastery  of  Mr.  Coleman, 
as  he  encourages  the  timid  questioner  and  repeats 
the  inaudible  question,  as  he  snubs  the  impertinent 
objector  or  silences  the  interrupter,  as  he  deftly 
guides  the  discussion  away  from  rocks  and  into 
navigable  waters,  —  all  that  is  fascinating  to 
witness.  And  the  final  dissolving  of  the  assembly, 
the  stream  of  human  beings  debouching  on  the 
sidewalk,   none  of  them   apparently   weary,   all  of 


BY  A  COLLEGE  PRESIDENT  145 

them  talkative,  stimulated,  excited,  illuminated, 
educated  by  the  evening's  experience,  —  that  is 
suggestive  of  what  might  be  achieved  in  every  large 
center  of  population. 

By  such  an  assembly  and  such  discussion  false- 
hood is  swiftly  punctured.  The  long-haired  anar- 
chist rises  to  ventilate  his  theory  and  sometimes 
receives  from  the  speaker  of  the  evening  a  knock- 
out blow.  The  faddist,  who  has  read  only  one  side 
of  a  social  theory,  is  forced  to  hear  the  other  side 
expounded.  The  single-taxer  has  a  chance  to  air 
his  pet  doctrine  and  hear  it  strongly  assailed.  The 
Protestant  discovers  that  a  Catholic  prelate  can 
make  an  excellent  address  on  human  brotherhood. 
The  foreigner  just  landed  in  Boston  harbor  hears 
American  ideals  set  forth  in  compelling  fashion. 
The  blatant  sceptic  finds  that  all  this  free  discus- 
sion is  furnished  by  the  Christian  church  and  guided 
by  disciples  of  the  Nazarene.  The  narrow  pietist 
learns  the  real  breadth  of  Christianity,  and  sees  how 
nothing  human  can  be  foreign  to  the  Christian  church. 

Thus  prejudice  is  disarmed  or  dispersed.  Real 
diflficulties  are  frankly  met.  The  right  of  private 
judgment  is  emphasized,  but  the  right  of  social 
control  is  made  equally  clear.  Truth  is  explained 
and  commended.  Specific  reforms  are  seen  in  their 
relation  to  the  entire  social  problem.  And  all 
social  and  economic  problems  are  bathed  in  the 
"light  that  never  was  on  sea  or  land",  the  light 
that  streams  from  faith  in  God  the  Father  and  his 
only  son  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 


146  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  lylAKING 

Who  can  estimate  the  results  of  such  a  work? 
It  is  not  perfect.  It  is  necessarily  fragmentary, 
scattering,  —  almost  as  much  so  as  when  a  certain 
"sower  went  forth  to  sow."  It  is  not  the  intensive 
and  ui)building  work  of  a  college.  It  is  and  must 
be  experimental  and  tentative.  But  so  is  all  the 
writing  of  books,  the  preaching  of  sermons,  the 
painting  of  pictures.  It  is  to  shoot  an  arrow  into 
the  air,  and  find  it  only  long  after,  "still  unbroke." 
It  is  to  cast  real  bread  on  the  turbulent,  rushing 
waters  of  city  life,  and  find  it  after  many  days. 


PART    III 
A  ROLL  OF  PERSONALITIES 


INTRODUCTION  TO  PART  III 

A  SEAT  on  the  platform  at  Ford  Hall, 
Sunday  evenings,  is  a  great  privilege. 
It  does  not  make  you  feel  conspicuous 
because  there  are  three-score  or  more  individuals 
who  keep  you  company,  every  inch  of  space  being 
taken.  But  it  is  a  rare  delight  to  look  that  audience 
in  the  face,  especially  when  its  turn  comes  to  talk 
back  to  the  lecturer  of  the  evening.  It  is  a  virile, 
sensitive,  responsive  mass  of  human  beings  who 
somehow  or  other  feel  closely  related  to  each  other. 
It  is  unlike  the  face  of  any  other  audience  you  ever 
looked  upon.  The  proportion  of  men  to  women  is 
as  two  to  one,  sometimes  as  three  to  one.  Bald 
heads  and  gray  hairs  are  conspicuous  by  their  rarity. 
Young  couples  are  a  good  deal  in  evidence.  Whole 
squads  of  young  lads  are  easily  discernable,  bunched 
here  and  there  all  over  the  hall.  Jew  and  Gentile, 
in  the  proportion  of  one  to  two,  are  as  intimately 
mixed  as  if  they  were  part  and  parcel  of  one  grand 
mosaic.  The  Socialists  are  readily  discerned  by 
their  vociferous  applause,  although  it  would  be 
difficult  to  guess  just  what  proportion  their  num- 
bers bear  to  the  enthusiasm  they  display.  Here 
and  there  you  may  discover  some  unusually  good 
representative     of     the     colored     people,     and     a 


150  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

Hindu,  Japanese,  or  Chinese  is  no  uncommon 
sight. 

I  know  the  church  people  of  Boston  pretty  well, 
but  can  find  few  of  them  in  this  audience,  unless 
it  be  that  some  hero  of  the  church  is  the  stated 
speaker  of  the  evening,  when  there  will  be  a  notice- 
able sprinkling  of  faithful  church  adherents  all 
through  the  house.  There  are  always  present  a 
score  or  more  of  devoted  philosophical  anarchists, 
but  rarely  do  they  make  their  presence  manifest. 
Employers,  teachers,  lawyers,  merchants,  and  poli- 
ticians seem  to  enjoy  the  meetings  quite  as  much  as 
the  labor  unionist,  the  Industrial  Workers  of  the 
World  devotee  and  the  free  lance.  The  agnostic 
and  the  atheist  are  not  discomfited,  and  the  Cath- 
olic and  the  Protestant  do  not  know  which  is  which. 

But  you  must  hear  them  ask  questions  before 
you  can  say  that  you  really  know  that  audience. 
For  an  hour  they  rebound  and  react.  Not  only  do 
they  challenge  the  message  to  which  they  have 
given  absorbing  attention,  but  they  also  take  into 
account  the  personality  through  which  the  message 
was  delivered.  They  do  not  mind  asking  in  a  very 
sincere  but  pointed  fashion  if  the  speaker  practises 
what  he  preaches  and,  if  so,  where  and  when.  If 
they  want  to  know  whether  or  not  you  are  a 
Socialist,  they  will  ask  you  point-blank.  Then  they 
are  just  as  likely  to  ask  if  you  said  what  you  said 
on  your  own  account,  or  because  it  was  the  point 
of  view  of  the  institution,  church,  or  class  that  you 
represented. 


INTRODUCTION  151 

But  something  more  is  necessary  than  a  general 
view  of  this  audience,  even  when  seen  in  action. 
You  must  know  the  life  stories  of  some  of  the  indi- 
viduals. A  passionate  question  from  one  of  them, 
evolved  perhaps  with  great  difficulty  and  indiffer- 
ently expressed,  means  so  much  more  to  you  when 
you  know  something  of  the  turmoil  and  struggle 
going  on  in  the  soul  of  him  who  had  the  courage 
and  force  to  give  the  question  expression. 

The  intimate  miniature  biographical  sketches  that 
make  up  this  section  of  the  book  were  not  intended 
originally  for  the  eye  of  the  stranger  to  our  Meetings 
but  were  prepared  and  printed  from  week  to  week 
in  our  little  Ford  Hall  Folks  magazine  for  the  pur- 
pose of  introducing  our  auditors  to  each  other.  But 
they  will  be  just  as  effective  in  giving  the  readers 
of  this  book  a  peep  into  the  hearts  and  lives  of  the 
men  and  women  who  are  component  parts  of  this 
extraordinary  audience. 

In  so  far  as  might  be  possible,  I  have  selected  for 
this  collection  of  biographical  stories  those  sixteen 
individuals  who  represent  distinctly  different  types 
in  our  audience.  Many  others  of  equal  interest 
might  have  been  added  easily.  But  these  will 
suffice  to  give  a  very  fair  idea  of  the  kind  of  people 
who  make  up  a  Ford  Hall  audience. 

These  sketches  were  all  written  by  Miss  Mary  C. 
Crawford,  who  has  a  very  happy  faculty  in  just 
this  sort  of  work.  It  has  not  been  easy  always  to 
get  these  friends  to  open  up  and  tell  their  story. 
That  it  was  for  the  good  of  Ford  Hall  was  a  clinch- 


152         DEMOCRACY  IN  THE   MAKING 

ing  argument  when  everything  else  had  failed.     And 

Miss  Crawford  was  so  well  known  to  them  and  had 

done  so  much  herself  for  the  Ford  Hall  enterprise, 

it  was  difficult  to  resist  her  appeal.     These  sketches 

constitute  an  invaluable  part  of  the  story  of  Ford 

Hall. 

G.  W.  C. 


CHAPTER  I 

AN    INVOLUNTARY   PHILANTHROPIST 
Mrs.  Eva  Hoffman 

ONE  interesting  thing  about  the  Ford  Hall 
Meetings  is  that  they  unite  families.  This 
is  said  to  be  true,  also,  of  the  automobile 
and  of  the  moving-picture  show.  But  it  is  pecul- 
iarly true  of  our  movement  because  its  appeal 
and  power  last  through  the  week.  What  happened 
at  Ford  Hall  on  Sunday  evening  last  and  is  going 
to  happen  here  next  Sunday  evening  is  animatedly 
discussed  in  hundreds  of  households  all  over  Greater 
Boston!  Mrs.  Eva  Hoffman,  our  energetic  Socialist 
friend,  has  once  or  twice  brought  her  "baby", 
aged  seven,  to  the  meetings,  often  brings  her  other 
daughter,  now  in  her  second  year  at  High  School, 
eagerly  discusses  what  is  said  here  with  her  younger 
son,  who  will  enter  Harvard  next  year,  and  reports 
with  pride  that  her  elder  son,  now  a  law  student  at 
Boston  University,  has  decided  to  join  our  Town 
Meeting  debates  for  the  reason  that  every  kind  of 
politics  and  party  view  will  there  be  represented. 
Nor  is  the  head  of  the  Hoffman  family  without  his 
share  in  our  affairs.  On  a  recent  noteworthy 
Tuesday,  he  "did  what  he  could"  for  our  leader,  — 


154  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

cast  a  vote  which  helped  elect  Mr.  Coleman  a  mem- 
ber of  Boston's  City  Government,  —  and  he  chanced 
to  be  the  only  member  of  the  Hoffman  family  who 
could  do  just  that  particular  thing.  Though  Mrs. 
Hoffman  organized,  some  time  ago,  an  Alice  Stone 
Blackwell  circle  for  suffrage  work,  she  has  not  yet 
been  able  to  get  herself  a  vote. 

Mostly  however,  Mrs.  Hoffman  gets  what  she 
goes  after.  She  it  was  who  led  the  recent  fight 
against  the  exorbitant  price  of  meat  that  resulted 
in  a  chain  of  cooperative  butcher  stores  being 
started  for  the  Jewish  people;  the  one  in  Brockton 
is  still  in  successful  operation  by  reason  of  the  fact 
that  local  conditions  in  that  town  are  favorable  to 
advantageous  buying. 

Helping  individuals,  though,  is  the  thing  which 
Mrs.  Hoffman  does  best,  notwithstanding  the  fact 
that,  as  a  Socialist,  she  cannot  approve  of  such 
help  when  paid  for  privately.  She  believes  that 
nine  out  of  every  ten  people  who  become  a  burden 
to  society  might  have  continued  self-sustaining  if 
intelligently  organized  aid  had  been  given  at  the 
proper  moment.  "I  say  that  I  must  save  two 
persons  a  year  from  pauperism,"  she  concludes,  "and 
mostly  I  have  been  able  to  do  that." 

Wliat  a  record  for  a  woman  without  means,  who, 
in  addition  to  caring  for  her  large  family,  helps  her 
husband  by  conducting  one  of  his  two  photograph 
studios.  The  family  home  is  connected  with  the 
Boston  studio,  in  the  heart  of  Boston's  Ghetto,  and 
so  Mrs.  Hoffman,  by  night  as  well  as  by  day,  is 


AN  INVOLUNTARY  PHILANTHROPIST      155 

accessible  to  every  poor  immigrant  who  lacks  a 
friend.  WTien  an  interpreter  is  needed  by  some 
one  too  poor  to  pay  for  such  service,  Mrs.  Hoffman 
is  called  upon  and  answers  the  call.  If  money  must 
be  found  to  send  a  consumptive  to  California  or 
to  set  up  a  deserted  wife  in  a  little  candy  business, 
it  is  Mrs.  Hoffman  who  undertakes  and  carries 
through  the  job.  She  knows  how  it  feels  to  be  a 
poor  immigrant  in  a  strange  land,  for  she  came  to 
this  country  from  Russia,  an  orphan  of  thirteen, 
and  during  her  teens  made  her  living  as  a  garment 
worker.  She  understands  better  than  almost  any 
other  person  in  Boston,  too,  the  psychology  of 
woman's  nature.  To  hear  her  plead  for  a  poor 
woman  who  refuses  to  give  up  to  charity  the  baby 
to  whom  she  has  been  a  foster-mother  —  is  to  have 
your  heart-strings  wrung! 

The  West  End  peddlers  are  another  of  her  con- 
cerns. These  men  pay  the  city  license  fees  to  be 
allowed  to  sell  fruit  or  vegetables  from  their  side- 
walk carts,  but  the  police,  egged  on  by  neighboring 
merchants  who  rent  stores,  make  life  a  burden  for 
the  handcart  men.  Scarcely  a  day  passes  but  one 
of  them  is  arrested  for  having  "stayed  in  one  spot 
longer  than  the  law  allows";  and  the  fines  which 
used  to  be  imposed  on  the  poor  fellows,  after  a  trial 
conducted  in  a  language  they  did  not  understand, 
forced  many  a  little  family  into  direst  poverty 
before  IVirs.  Hoffman  and  her  interpreters  came  to 
the  rescue.  This  woman  has  never  forgotten  how 
it  feels  to  be  a  stranger  in  a  strange  land,  and  her 


156  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

big  heart  beats  warmly  for  all  the  oppressed.  Stir- 
ringly she  voices  to  all  those  who  may  help  the 
inarticulate  needs  of  her  immigrant  friends.  And  it 
is  just  here  that  she  is  perhaps  of  greatest  service. 
To  the  comfortable  who  come  to  the  Ford  Hall 
Meetings,  the  men  and  women  who,  though  they 
"care",  do  not  know  at  first  hand  the  meaning  of 
poverty  and  injustice,  Mrs.  Hoffman  is  in  her  turn 
an  interpreter.  Through  her  many  have  come  to 
understand  as  they  never  could  have  understood 
without  her  the  hopes  and  fears,  the  struggles  and 
aspirations,  the  prejudices  and  passions  of  the  poor. 
Mrs.  Hoffman's  presentation  of  conditions  is 
never  complacent.  Even  while  she  asks  a  rich  man 
to  give  her  money  that  will  help  one  of  her  sick 
people  in  an  emergency  or  will  tide  over  a  family 
about  to  be  evicted,  she  states  her  conviction  that 
palliative  measures  are  but  poor  measures  at  best. 
For  she  believes  devoutly  in  the  New  Order  that 
is  to  come,  an  order  under  which,  she  tells  you, 
poverty  and  injustice  will  have  disappeared  forever. 
And  somehow,  as  you  talk  with  her,  you,  also, 
come  to  believe  in  that  New  Order. 


CHAPTER  II 

A   MAN    WHO   WRITES   LETTERS 
Alfred  Williams 

WE  often  hear  it  said  in  these  days  that 
the  art  of  letter-WTiting  is  disappearing 
in  the  face  of  telephones,  telegrams, 
and  the  terse  and  business-like  typewriter.  Alfred 
Williams,  however,  is  one  of  the  few  who  still  write 
letters.  A  number  of  years  ago,  before  ever  I  knew 
him  at  Ford  Hall,  I  was  immensely  impressed  by  a 
letter  which  he  wrote  to  the  Boston  Transcript  and 
which  received  editorial  comment  as  well  as  the 
honor  of  being  printed  in  full.  In  this  letter  he 
deplored  the  attitude  taken  by  most  landlords 
towards  tenants  who  have  a  family  of  young  chil- 
dren. This  is  a  subject  very  near  to  Mr.  Williams's 
heart  and  one  on  which  he  will  talk  eloquently  at 
any  time  if  given  half  a  chance.  For  he  himself 
has  a  fine  family  of  youngsters,  and  he  deeply 
resents  having  them  regarded  by  house-owners  as 
"undesirable"  tenants.  Once  he  wrote  a  letter  to 
Rockefeller  about  this  same  matter,  addressing  that 
distinguished  Baptist  as  one  who,  by  virtue  of  the 
fact  that  he  is  the  custodian  of  great  wealth,  should 
feel  a  grave  responsibility  in  the  matter  of  ideal 
city  dwellings  for  workers  and  their  families. 


158  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

Whenever  pleasant,  sunny  homes  for  children  and 
their  parents  are  under  discussion,  somebody  with 
the  happy  air  of  proposing  a  panacea  always  sug- 
gests the  "back  to  the  land"  remedy.  But  Alfred 
Williams  punctures  at  once  the  sophistry  of  this 
prescription.  "My  job  is  that  of  a  linotype  oper- 
ator," he  says.  "I  have  absolutely  no  qualifica- 
tions as  a  farmer.  And  a  man  who  must  put  in  a 
hard  day's  work  in  the  city  cannot  afford  the  time 
and  the  strength  necessary  to  long  trolley  trips  or 
train  journeys  to  the  country.  Besides,  I  am 
interested  in  city  things.  I  agree  with  the  position 
said  to  have  been  taken  by  Spargo  when  Jacob 
Schiff  asked  him  to  lend  his  support  to  a  movement 
which  should  put  all  immigrants  on  the  land,  re- 
gardless of  their  desire  or  fitness  for  agricultural 
pursuits.  Spargo  claimed  that  an  immigrant,  as 
well  as  any  other  man,  ought  to  be  given  the  right 
to  say  where  he  would  live.  And  he  added  that 
there  is  much  to  be  said  for  city  life  as  a  socializing 
force." 

Alfred  Williams  is  an  immigrant  who  knows 
country  as  well  as  city.  He  was  born  in  a  little 
ivy-covered  cottage  on  the  border  of  Cork  and 
Kerry  counties  in  Ireland;  but  when  his  stepfather, 
a  longshoreman  who  earned  good  wages,  came  to 
America  and  forgot  the  little  family  left  behind  in 
the  old  country,  Mr.  Williams's  mother  went  into 
the  business  of  keeping  a  boarding-house  in  Cork, 
a  city  not  unlike  Boston  in  general  aspect.  Here 
the  lad  went  to  school  until  he  was  twelve,  when 


A  MAN  WHO  WRITES  LETTERS         159 

the  mother  and  her  little  brood  came  to  America. 
Middleboro  was  the  town  in  which  they  settled, 
over  here;  and  then  young  Williams  had  a  few 
more  years  at  school  before,  at  the  age  of  fifteen,  he 
went  to  work  as  printer's  "devil"  on  a  weekly 
newspaper  and  so  got  his  start  in  his  present  trade. 

All  keen  young  men  in  printing-oflBces  learn  a 
good  deal,  —  and  Alfred  Williams  learned  more 
than  most.  Organization  interested  him,  and  he 
became  a  member  of  the  powerful  Typographical 
Union.  Then  the  teachings  of  Socialism  made  their 
appeal  to  him,  and  he  became  a  follower  of  the 
Socialists.  "One,  however,  who  does  not  follow 
them  everywhere  they  go,"  he  qualifies.  About  ten 
years  ago  his  interest  extended  to  include  the 
Industrial  Workers  of  the  World  which  he  regards 
as  of  very  great  potentiality  in  socializing  the  un- 
skilled foreign-born  workers  of  this  country;  but 
for  sabotage  and  the  Industrial  Workers  of  the 
World's  practice  of  ignoring  the  power  of  the  ballot 
this  clear-thinking  Irishman  has  no  respect  what- 
ever. 

"I  myself  vote  the  Socialist  ticket,"  he  says, 
"though  I  do  not  vote  it  exclusively.  For  instance, 
I  voted  for  Mayor  Curley.  And  ten  days  before 
Curley's  election,  I  wrote  to  him  and  told  him  why 
he  would  have  my  support;  because,  as  I  explained, 
he  represented  a  radical  element  in  the  community 
which  seemed  to  me  to  be  sadly  in  need  of  a  savior." 

Alfred  Williams  feels  this  very  deeply.  Ireland, 
he  points  out,  is  constantly  spoken  of  as  very  poor. 


160  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

but  he  says  that  he  never  saw  more  poverty  in 
Ireland  than  can  be  seen  right  in  this  city  of  Boston. 
Nor  would  any  spectacle  encountered  over  there  be 
more  utterly  depressing  than  was  the  line  of  men 
that  one  winter  thronged  the  soup  kitchen  at  which 
he  worked  hard  every  night  as  one  of  the  Ford  Hall 
Folks.  For,  though  Alfred  Williams  disbelieves  in 
philanthropy  quite  as  much  as  Mrs,  Hoffman  does, 
he  cares  very  much  about  men  and  women  and 
little  children,  —  particularly  the  children.  The 
Cooperative  Commonwealth  especially  appeals  to 
him  by  virtue  of  the  happy  homes  set  in  tidy  little 
gardens  which  it  will  bring  to  all  workingmen. 
And  in  all  the  gardens  will  be  happy,  healthy  chil- 
dren at  play. 


CHAPTER  III 
A   VIRILE   YOUNG   JEW 

Samuel  Sackmary 

THOSE  wlio  attended  the  Fifth  Birthday 
Party  of  the  Ford  Hall  Meetings  will 
recall  a  very  remarkable  letter  printed  on 
the  souvenir  program.  To  this  letter  was  appended 
the  name  "Samuel  Sackmary."  The  writer  of  that 
letter  and  the  vigorous,  quick-spoken  youth  who, 
at  Mary  Antin's  Meeting,  asked  a  question  about 
the  speaker's  cook,  to  which  Mr.  Coleman  replied 
amid  a  roar  of  laughter,  "You're  too  late,  Sam, 
she's  married,"  are  one  and  the  same. 

Everybody  calls  him  Sam  —  or  wants  to.  He 
himself  calls  his  interesting  antique  shop  down  on 
Temple  street  "Sam's  Outlet",  which  it  appears  to 
be  in  more  than  the  commercial  sense.  For  all  the 
well-known  figures  in  West  End  life  drop  in  there 
in  the  course  of  the  week,  —  and  they  do  not  all 
buy  antiques.  Any  one  who  has  once  heard  Sack- 
mary talk  for  half  an  hour  is  likely  to  want  to  hear 
him  again.  He  speaks  with  as  much  fervor  as  does 
Stephen  Wise;  and,  also  like  Wise,  he  says  interest- 
ing things. 

His  has  been  an   interesting  career,   too.     Born 


162  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

in  the  East  Side  of  New  York,  he  haunted,  as  a  lad, 
the  newsboy  galleries  of  the  old  New  York  theaters 
and  drank  in  eagerly  the  vivid  pictures  of  humble 
East  Side  life  there  being  presented  by  Harrigan 
and  Hart  —  the  Ward  and  Vokes  of  their  day, 
though  much  more  serious  in  purpose  than  Ward 
and  Vokes  have  ever  been.  To  hear  Sam  Sackmary 
relate,  with  dramatic  gesture,  what  Ned  Harrigan 
and  his  portrayal  of  city  types  meant  to  him  as  a 
youth  is  to  feel  afresh  the  glow  and  lure  of  hero- 
worship. 

Removal  to  Boston  was  followed  by  attendance 
at  the  Phillips  School  in  the  West  End.  Then,  at 
fifteen,  the  lad  with  the  ardent  eyes  became  a 
"drummer  on  the  road  selling  stationery."  Always 
however,  his  desire  was  to  get  into  some  sort  of 
work  which  should  satisfy  his  art-instinct.  Soon  he 
found  himself  collecting  rare  old  things  and  selling 
them  again  for  a  profit.  But  the  Chelsea  fire  wiped 
out  his  little  stock  and  left  him  with  less  than  five 
dollars  in  the  world!  Yet,  as  he  tells  the  story, 
what  he  seems  to  lament  most,  in  connection  with 
the  fire,  is  that  through  it  he  lost  a  symphonic 
composition,  upon  which  he  had  long  been  at  work 
in  his  spare  minutes,  and  which  had  been  scored 
for  eighty -five  instruments. 

Music  is  Sam's  passion.  The  great  pleasure  of 
his  life  is  playing  old-fashioned  tunes  and  airs  which 
have  a  resonant  minor  strain  in  them  upon  the  organ 
of  the  little  West  End  home  in  which  he  and  his 
aged  mother  live  together.     This  mother  is  a  devout 


A  VIRILE  YOUNG  JEW  163 

and  Orthodox  Jewess,  —  from  Hungary,  —  and 
largely  because  of  her,  probably,  Sam  has  kept  close 
to  the  faith  of  his  fathers.  But  he  is  a  convinced 
Socialist  none  the  less,  ever  since  the  day  he  read 
Bellamy's  Looking  Backward.  It  seems  to  me  not 
without  interest,  therefore,  that  the  synagogue 
which  he  and  his  mother  attend  is  the  very  building, 
—  on  Smith  Court,  off  Joy  Street,  —  in  which  the 
New  England  Anti-Slavery  Society,  the  first  asso- 
ciation established  in  this  country  for  the  purpose 
of  freeing  the  blacks,  was  organized  on  a  stormy 
night  of  January,  1832.  The  building  was  then  a 
church  for  colored  people,  and  hence  a  natural 
rallying  place  for  Garrison  and  those  working  with 
him  to  free  the  slaves  of  the  nineteenth  century. 


CHAPTER  IV 
A   FINE   IRISH    COUPLE 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  J.  Sullivan 

OCCASIONALLY,  even  in  these  days,  one 
meets  a  couple  who  seem  perfectly  matched. 
When  such  a  couple  are  no  longer  young 
people,  have  indeed  grown  children  of  whom  they 
are  justly  proud,  they  help  the  sceptical  among  us 
back  to  renewed  faith  in  marriage  as  an  institution. 
But  this  is  the  story  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  J. 
Sullivan,  —  not  a  dissertation  on  the  Ethics  of 
Marriage  and  Divorce. 

Mr.  Sullivan  is  a  gentle,  gray-haired  man  with 
kindly  blue  eyes  behind  his  gold-bowed  spectacles. 
His  tastes  are  those  of  a  scholar,  though  he  is  no 
less  enthusiastic  over  the  joys  of  raising  straw- 
berries, peaches,  gooseberries,  and  plums  on  the 
half  acre  of  land  at  his  West  Roxbury  home  than 
over  Thomas  Buckle's  History  of  English  Civiliza- 
tion, Spencerian  philosophy,  and  the  fascinating 
literary  style  of  our  own  John  Fiske.  Alfred 
Russel  Wallace  is  another  of  his  book  friends;  the 
optimistic  note  in  this  man's  work  and  the  way  in 
which  he  reconciles  religion  and  science  particularly 
recommends  itself  to  one  of  Mr.  Sullivan's  tempera- 
ment. 


A  FINE  IRISH  COUPLE  165 

For  John  J.  Sullivan  Is  one  of  our  "incurably 
religious"  people;  he  declares  indeed  that  it  is  the 
constant  emphasis  put  at  Ford  Hall  on  the  spiritual 
side  of  life  which  chiefly  attracts  him  to  our  meet- 
ings. A  Roman  Catholic  by  birth  and  training,  he 
had  been  wandering  about  for  many  years  outside 
the  Church,  searching  everywhere  for  something 
he  could  not  find  until,  on  the  night  when  Charles 
Sprague  Smith  gave  his  wonderful  talk  on  "The 
Brotherhood  of  Man",  —  back  in  our  first  season, 
—  he  happened  in  at  Ford  Hall  and  found  a  new 
heaven  and  a  new  earth  opening  to  his  hungry  soul. 
Ever  since,  he  and  his  wife  have  been  among  our 
most  enthusiastic  attendants.  Mrs.  Sullivan  has 
never  ceased  to  be  a  good  Catholic;  Mr.  Sullivan 
confesses  that  he  is  now  pretty  nearly  ready  to 
return  to  the  Church  of  his  fathers.  Through 
radicalism  and  revolt,  he  has  come  back,  with  our 
help,  to  religion. 

The  Sullivans  have  four  boys.  The  oldest  of  the 
four,  now  twenty-five,  his  father  w^himsically  pro- 
nounces a  "sad  reactionary."  Graduated  from  the 
High  School  at  the  early  age  of  twelve,  this  lad  was 
sent  by  his  father,  at  considerable  sacrifice,  to 
Bowdoin  College.  There,  however,  he  worked  very 
hard  and  so  was  able  to  complete  his  four  years' 
course  with  honors  in  three  years.  Young  Sullivan 
is  doing  exceedingly  well  for  himself  in  the  world,  — 
so  well  that  he  thinks  there  is  no  reason  every  other 
youth  may  not  attain  just  as  great  success  as  he 
has  done. 


16G  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE   IVIAKING 

Those  of  us  who  are  older  and  can  see  farther 
feel  that  his  contention  might  be  sustained  —  if  all 
the  other  young  fellows  had  been  blessed  with 
parents  like  his! 


CHAPTER  V 
A   JOURNALIST   IN   THE    GERM 

Philip  Everett  Sage 

IN  Ford  Hall  Folks  there  once  appeared  a  sketch 
entitled  "Ford  Hall  and  Satan",  which  a 
great  many  people  immensely  enjoyed.  The 
author  of  the  sketch  was  Philip  Everett  Sage,  a 
youth  of  seventeen  who  intends  to  be  a  journalist 
one  of  these  days,  and  who  is  now  fitting  himself 
with  singular  thoroughness  for  his  future  profession. 
If  he  had  continued  in  school,  young  Sage  would  now 
be  a  freshman  in  college.  But  he  left  school  some 
time  ago  in  order  to  contribute  to  the  family  sup- 
port, and  it  is  by  way  of  the  preparatory  classes  at 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  that  he  will 
one  day  reach  the  Harvard  of  his  desire. 

Every  Monday,  Tuesday,  Thursday,  and  Friday 
evenings  find  this  lad  at  his  desk  in  the  big  building 
on  Huntington  Avenue,  busy  over  Latin,  French, 
ancient  history,  and  government.  Wednesday  and 
Saturday  evenings  he  spends  on  the  preparation  of 
his  lessons;  and  every  Sunday  night  he  acts  as  an 
usher  at  Ford  Hall.  From  8  to  5.20  daily  he  works 
as  a  compositor  in  a  big  printing-office  on  Atlantic 
Avenue,  Boston.     Not  much  opportunity  in  a  week 


168  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

as  full  as  this  for  the  idleness  that  breeds  mis- 
chief ! 

Unless  ill  health  or  some  other  untoward  fate  over- 
takes him,  Philip  Sage  will  be  in  Harvard  in  three 
years,  —  and  a  journalist  at  the  end  of  four  years 
more.  He  has  the  kind  of  determination  which 
will  carry  him  through.  He  has  missed  only  one 
night  at  Ford  Hall  in  four  years  and  that  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  Sunday  is  his  one  time  of  leisure  in 
an  over-crowded  week,  —  the  only  time  when  he 
could  do  some  of  that  reading  he  cares  so  much 
about.  He  doesn't  at  all  mind  working  as  hard  as 
he  now  has  to,  he  says,  or  even  walking  back  and 
forth,  four  evenings  a  week,  from  his  home  at 
Cottage  Park,  Cambridge,  to  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  at  Huntington  Avenue,  Bos- 
ton; but  it  is  hard  not  to  have  more  time  to  read 
Emerson  and  Homer,  whose  acquaintance  he  has 
recently  made  in  hours  stolen  from  more  pressing 
scholastic  duties. 

"I  greatly  enjoy  walking  back  and  forth  to  my 
classes,"  confided  this  strenuous  young  student. 
"You  see,  it  gives  me  a  chance  to  review  in  my 
mind  the  lecture  of  the  Sunday  evening  before  at 
Ford  Hall.  I  repeat  many  a  passage  to  myself, 
then  analyze  what  the  speaker  has  said,  and, 
perhaps,  wish  I  could  ask  him  the  questions  that 
suggest  themselves  to  me." 

Philip  never  fails  to  ask  a  question  at  the  meet- 
ings. Once  in  a  while  it  is  a  question  that  has 
already  been  answered,  but  this  is  because  he  has 


A  JOURNALIST  IN  THE  GERM  169 

been  so  intently  thinking  about  the  best  form  in 
which  to  put  his  query  that  he  has  failed  to  hear 
some  of  the  other  folks'  questions.  No  attendant 
at  Ford  Hall  takes  the  meetings  more  seriously  than 
this  ardent  young  Jew. 

Prejudice,  as  those  who  read  the  sketch  about 
Ford  Hall  and  Satan  must  have  gathered,  is  the 
Big  Vice  to  young  Sage.  So  desirous  is  he  not  to 
be  prejudiced  himself,  that  he  will  not  call  himself 
a  Socialist,  though  greatly  interested  in  the  Socialist 
philosophy;  and  so  bent  is  he  on  avoiding  preju- 
dice in  others,  that  he  does  not  wish  to  be  identified 
with  the  Jewish  race,  though  a  loyal  son  of  devout 
Jewish  parents.  "It  isn't  that  I'm  ashamed  of 
being  a  Jew",  he  explains,  "only  that  I  don't  want 
to  be  pre-judged.  I  expect  to  write  one  day  and  to 
have  to  sell  my  writings;  I  want  then  to  find  an 
open  field  without  more  handicaps  than  must  be 
met  by  the  next  man.  If  everybody  were  like  the 
good  Ford  Hall  folks,  and  took  people  for  what  they 
are  worth,  regardless  of  race,  class,  or  creed,  it 
would  be  a  lot  easier  for  us  Jews.  But  we  have 
been  sadly  persecuted  in  the  past.  I  have  read  the 
five  big  volumes  of  Graetz's  History  of  the  Jews, 
and  am  by  no  means  ignorant  of  the  difficulties  my 
people  have  had  to  overcome.  Yet  I  am  not  bitter 
about  this.  And  all  I  want  for  myself  is  a  chance 
to  get  an  education  which  will  enable  me  to  serve 
the  world,  —  all  kinds  of  people,  —  whatever  way 
I  can." 


CHAPTER  VI 

A   TYPICAL   MOTHER 

Mrs.  G.  E.  Blanchard 

MRS.  G.  E.  BLANCHARD  is  the  middle  link 
in  a  very  interesting  family  group,  all 
of  whom  are  profoundly  interested  in 
Ford  Hall,  and  one  of  whom  has  followed  the  move- 
ment from  its  very  first  meeting.  This  group  be- 
longs to  that  important  category  of  persons  whom 
we  are  wont  to  declare  happy  because  they  have  no 
history.  "I  shall  be  very  much  gratified  if  you 
leave  me  out  of  your  budget  of  sketches",  wrote 
Mrs.  Blanchard  to  me,  when  I  told  her  I  wanted  to 
write  about  her,  "because  I  am  really  very  ordi- 
nary and  commonplace,  with  no  talent  for  anything 
except  helping  a  little  in  my  own  small  corner. 
Only,  my  feeling  of  loyalty  to  the  'Ford  Hall  spirit' 
urges  me  to  leave  it  to  you  to  do  as  you  think  best 
about  the  matter." 

I  greatly  appreciate  Mrs.  Blanchard's  confidence. 
But  I  am  writing  about  her  just  the  same  because 
the  fact  that  she  and  her  mother  and  daughter  are 
enthusiastic  attendants  at  Ford  Hall  proves  that 
one  does  not  need  to  be  a  Socialist,  an  Anarchist,  or 
a  Single  Taxer  to  find  much  that  is  valuable  and 


A  TYPICAL  MOTHER  171 

stimulating  in  these  meetings.  Mrs.  Blanchard  has 
been  coming  to  the  Meetings  ever  since  the  night 
Keir  Hardie  spoke  to  us,  some  five  years  ago;  and 
her  mother  has  been  here  ever  since  the  first  night, 
while  her  daughter,  a  recent  graduate  of  the  Prac- 
tical Arts  High  School,  now  comes  regularly  also. 
Obviously  the  talk  at  the  Blanchards'  table  and 
their  points  of  view  concerning  social  matters  must 
be  very  different  from  that  of  the  ordinary  com- 
fortable suburban  family.  (For  these  people  live 
an  hour's  ride  from  Beacon  Hill  on  the  electric 
cars;  coming  to  our  Meetings  with  them  is  a  thing 
that  takes  time  and  so  has  to  be  carefully  planned.) 
It  is  worth  noting  that,  in  this  family,  however, 
the  Ford  Hall  Meetings  are  not  a  substitute  for 
regular  religious  aflSliations.  Mrs.  Blanchard  is  a 
devout  and  loyal  Methodist,  actively  interested  in 
foreign  missions  and  chairman  of  the  itinerary  of 
women  missionaries  for  New  England.  She  is  also 
the  efiicient  head  of  a  family  which  consists  of  a 
husband,  two  sons,  and  an  adopted  daughter.  She 
is  of  Revolutionary  ancestry,  —  though  she  doesn't 
make  any  fuss  about  it,  —  one  of  her  ancestors 
having  been  an  oflBcer  under  Washington.  The 
same  kind  of  grit  that  made  this  ancestor  an  effec- 
tive person  in  his  generation  is  possessed  by  Mrs. 
Blanchard's  sons.  One  of  these  sons,  who  is  now 
twenty-four  and  a  successful  chemist  in  Syracuse, 
New  York,  lived  in  Vermont,  eight  miles  from  a 
public  library,  during  part  of  his  student  years,  — 
the  family  having  gone  temporarily  into  the  country 


m         DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

for  reasons  of  health.  Yet  by  the  aid  of  some 
correspondence  school  courses,  supplemented  by 
work  at  the  Franklin  Union  when  he  returned  to 
Boston,  this  disadvantage  was  so  successfully  over- 
come that  no  real  detriment  was  done  to  his  career. 
The  second  son  is  studying  drafting  and  bids  fair 
to  do  as  well  in  his  profession. 

Quiet  yet  strong-souled,  unassertive  yet  executive, 
Mrs.  Blanchard  typifies  an  element  in  the  Ford 
Hall  work  which  has  added  more  to  the  value  and 
sanity  of  the  movement  than  can  perhaps  ever  be 
estimated.  Especially  since,  through  the  "Ford 
Hall  Folks"  gatherings,  we  have  been  able  to  con- 
centrate and  utilize  the  good  sense  and  unprejudiced 
conservatism  which  she  and  several  other  house- 
wives in  our  group  contribute.  There  are  many 
among  us  who,  because  of  our  temperaments,  must 
inevitably  hitch  our  wagons  to  stars;  but  happily 
our  work  can  never  get  too  far  away  from  good 
sound  Mother  Earth  so  long  as  Grace  Emery 
Blanchard  and  other  women  like  her  stand  solidly 
with  us  and  constantly  lend  us  their  counsel. 


CHAPTER  VII 

A   RED-HOT   SOCIALIST 

Martin  Jordan 

MARTIN  JORDAN  is  a  Socialist  and  a 
Roman  Catholic.  Martin  Jordan  is  a 
Roman  Catholic  and  a  Socialist.  Appar- 
ently he  does  not  find  the  two  things  mutually 
antagonistic,  as  many  of  the  Ford  Hall  audience 
seem  to  think  they  must  be.  Nor  does  he  find 
either  or  both  of  them  at  all  an  impediment  to 
thorough  appreciation  of  the  Ford  Hall  Meetings. 
There  are  two  or  three  other  interesting  and  unusual 
things  about  this  cheery  little  gray-haired  man,  who 
sells  his  papers  every  Sunday  night  to  the  crowd 
outside  our  doors.  One  of  them  is  that  though  an 
Englishman  by  birth,  he  has  the  whimsical  wit  of 
an  Irishman.  Another  is  that  though  a  Socialist, 
he  will  cooperate  with  anybody  in  doing  a  good 
deed.  A  third  is  that  while  his  questions  in  the 
hall  always  sound  very,  very  fierce,  he  is  the  kind- 
liest soul  in  the  world. 

Chesterfield,  in  Derbyshire,  was  Mr.  Jordan's 
birthplace,  but  he  came  to  America  at  the  age  of 
ten  and  was  soon  working  for  a  dollar  and  a  quarter 
a  day  in  the  coal  mines  of  Pennsylvania.     He  is 


174  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

not  at  all  bitter  as  he  tells  about  those  days.  In 
fact,  he  says  that  he  liked  his  work  for  the  most 
part,  and  that  a  good  deal  of  the  talk  concerning 
the  unhealthiness  of  mining  is  sheer  exaggeration. 
By  the  use  of  modern  methods,  working  in  a  mine 
may  be  no  worse  than  working  in  an  elevator,  he 
insists.  After  his  mining  experience,  Mr.  Jordan 
was  employed  for  a  number  of  years  in  a  carpet 
factory,  and  then,  for  eighteen  years,  in  the  Wal- 
tham  Bleachery.  During  this  latter  period,  he 
organized  the  first  Knights  of  Labor  that  ever  met 
in  Waltham.  At  this  time  he  was  a  member  of  the 
Populist  party.  In  1896,  however,  he  became  in- 
terested in  Socialism,  and  turned  his  propagandist 
zeal  into  the  service  of  that  party.  He  works 
valiantly  all  the  time  for  the  cause  of  humanity 
everywhere;  whether  it  be  collecting  clothing 
for  Lawrence  strikers,  helping  to  distribute  Ford 
Hall  circulars,  or  softening  the  prejudices  of  Cath- 
olics against  Socialists  —  or  of  Socialists  against 
Catholics. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

A  MAN  WHO  FOUND  HIMSELF 
Clarence  W.  Marple 

THERE  is  a  kind  of  fine  poetic  justice  in 
the  fact  that  it  was  by  means  of  an  ad- 
dress given  at  a  Ford  Hall  Meeting  by- 
President  Faunce,  Baptist,  that  Clarence  W. 
Marple,  a  Baptist  born  and  bred,  —  who  had,  how- 
ever, been  driven  from  the  church  of  his  childhood 
through  lack  of  sympathy  with  old-fashioned  the- 
ology, "found  himself"  in  the  world  and  began  to 
live  vitally  for  the  first  time.  Mr.  Marple  is  secre- 
tary of  the  Ford  Hall  Folks  and  chairman  of  the 
Town  Meeting's  committee  on  transportation. 
But  for  Faunce  he  would  have  been  neither.  And 
therein  lies  his  story. 

The  Clarendon  Street  Baptist  Church,  of  which 
our  director  is  a  deacon,  was  presided  over  in  the 
days  when  Clarence  Marple  and  our  director  were 
both  boys  by  Doctor  A.  J.  Gordon,  a  splendid  type 
of  militant  Christian  who  was,  however,  thoroughly 
orthodox  on  his  theological  side.  Different  natures 
take  things  differently.  Doctor  Gordon's  orthodoxy 
did  not  repel  young  Coleman;  nor  did  it  retard  his 
development  into  the  kind  of  man  who  can  to-day 


176  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

love  and  be  loved  by  many  varieties  of  Jew  and 
all  varieties  of  Christian.  Young  Marple,  however, 
ere  long  found  himself  outside  the  church  because, 
being  unable  to  accept  the  Bible  in  toto  and  literally, 
he  decided  that  he  could  not  accept  it  at  all.  "If 
only  the  ministers  and  teachers  had  told  me,"  he 
now  says  wistfully,  "what  was  allegory  and  what 
fable  in  the  Bible,  —  instead  of  leaving  me  to  find 
out  for  myself,  —  I  should  probably  be  in  the  church 
to-day  instead  of  outside,  as  I  am." 

Under  these  circumstances  the  fact  that  the  Ford 
Hall  Meetings  were  under  Baptist  auspices  naturally 
did  not  make  Clarence  Marple  look  them  up  with 
any  great  degree  of  alacrity  when,  returning  to 
Boston  a  few  years  ago,  after  five  years'  residence 
in  Vermont,  his  attention  was  first  called  to  the 
new  institution.  But  he  had  developed  an  interest 
in  Socialism,  while  away  from  Boston,  and  the  desire 
to  hear  Spargo,  whom  he  saw  was  to  speak  at  Ford 
Hall,  proved  to  be  stronger  than  the  old-time 
prejudice.  That  meeting  was  the  beginning  of  a 
great  loyalty.  Baptist  though  it  was.  Ford  Hall 
henceforth  drew  Clarence  Marple. 

As  a  youth  reading  and  study  had  meant  nothing 
to  this  man,  but  he  was  now  reading  a  good  deal  in 
a  rather  haphazard  fashion,  earning  his  living  the 
while  as  shipper  in  a  large  manufacturing  concern. 
He  brought  a  keen  interest,  therefore,  to  President 
Faunce's  remarkable  lecture,  "Education  Without 
Schools."  Hearing  this  lecture,  Clarence  Marple 
woke  up.     Faunce  had  spoken  of  many  men  who 


A  MAN  WHO  FOUND  HIMSELF  177 

were  developing  themselves  through  correspondence 
courses  in  law,  draughting,  etc.,  and  Mr.  Marple, 
determining  to  study  something  effectively,  inves- 
tigated tentatively  the  opportunities  such  courses 
might  hold  for  him.  But  he  was  a  family  man, 
with  a  wife,  two  girls,  and  a  boy  dependent  upon 
his  earnings,  and  dilettante  dabbling  in  study  for 
the  sake  of  study  was  not  to  be  thought  of.  Then 
it  came  to  him  that  there  was  plenty  that  he  did 
not  know  about  the  devious  methods  by  which  the 
boxes  which  he  every  day  sealed  up  reached  their 
destinations  in  Europe  and  on  the  other  side  of  this 
great  country,  —  and  he  decided  to  take  a  course  in 
Interstate  Commerce  with  the  LaSalle  University  Ex- 
tension of  Chicago.  No  one  who  has  heard  him 
discuss  the  problems  of  transportation  at  Town 
Meeting  can  be  in  any  doubt  about  what  this 
course  has  meant  to  him  mentally. 

Spiritually  it  has  been  his  salvation.  "To  work 
is  to  pray,"  declares  a  fine  old  Latin  motto.  To 
work  with  enthusiasm  and  ever-deepening  interest 
in  the  vast  sociological  questions  bound  up  with  all 
work  in  our  time  is  to  become  a  child  of  God,  — 
the  kind  of  responsible  human  being  for  whom  Earl 
Barnes  was  calling  in  his  lecture  of  a  few  months 
ago.  People  who  work  in  that  way  rise  above  their 
immediate  environment,  no  matter  how  humdrum 
their  work  may  be.  So  Clarence  Marple's  mind 
goes  on  long  journeys  and  considers  many  things 
while  he  is  nailing  up  a  box  of  twine  and  paper  for 
use  at  a  far  western   trading-post.     That  he  has 


178  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

become  vastly  more  valuable  to  his  employers  as 
a  result  of  his  deepened  interest  in  the  technique 
of  transportation  seems  to  me  much  less  important, 
though  this  is  the  side  that  the  Correspondence 
Schools  always  play  up  in  their  advertisements, 
than  that  to  himself  he  has  become  a  significant 
figure  in  the  work  of  the  world.  There  is  a  lesson 
in  his  story  for  the  rest  of  us  Ford  Hall  folks. 


CHAPTER  IX 

A  WARM-HEARTED  UNBELIEVER 

Michael  Rush 

MR.  RUSH  was  first  attracted  to  the 
Sunday-evening  gathering  at  Ford  Hall 
by  the  Town  Meeting;  a  member  of 
the  English  Secular  Society,  he  had  previously 
thought  himself  sufficiently  served  on  Sunday  by 
the  Free  Thinkers'  services  in  Paine  Memorial  Hall. 
He  dropped  in  at  Town  Meeting,  one  Thursday 
night,  however,  because  he  is  a  man  with  large 
leisure,  interested  in  every  kind  of  effort  for  human 
betterment.  Mr.  Foster  as  a  presiding  officer 
immediately  won  his  admiration;  he  says  that  he 
would  back  him  any  time  against  the  speakers  of 
the  Massachusetts  House  of  Representatives,  whom 
he  often  studies  in  action,  as  it  were.  But  at  the 
Town  Meeting  he  heard  talk  of  "Sunday  nights" 
and  of  "Mr.  Coleman",  and  this  roused  his  curi- 
osity. So  one  Sunday  night  he  found  himself  in 
our  upstairs  audience.  And  he  has  been  coming 
ever  since. 

"There's  such  a  grand  democracy  about  those 
Meetings  that  they  make  my  heart  bubble  and  boil 
like  a  little  sauce-pan,"  he  confided  to  me  recently. 


180  DEINIOCRACY  IN  THE   MAKING 

I  have  come  to  like  them  so  much  that  I  don't  even 
mind  their  being  fathered  by  a  rehgious  organiza- 
tion! I  thought  that  I  was  through  with  prayers 
for  all  time,  but  Mr.  Coleman's  prayers  mean  some- 
thing to  me.  He's  an  honest  man,  as  honest  as 
Charles  Bradlaugh,  that  great  agnostic  with  whom 
I  worked  in  England,  and  whom  I  honored  so  much 
that  I  traveled  a  hundred  miles  just  to  shake  his 
hand  when  I  was  leaving  home  for  America,  more 
than  thirty  years  ago." 

It  is  very  interesting  to  hear  Mr.  Rush  talk  about 
the  way  he  became  an  agnostic.  He  took  the  step 
as  deliberately  and  after  as  deep  searching  of  the 
soul  as  usually  accompanies  "conversion"  and 
subsequent  "joining  the  church."  For  he  had 
previously  been  a  most  ardent  and  earnest  Metho- 
dist. All  the  education  he  has,  indeed,  was  ob- 
tained from  Methodist  Sunday-schools,  and  he  was 
so  eager  as  a  lad  to  improve  these  scant  oppor- 
tunities that  he  used  to  get  up  at  five  o'clock  to 
attend  their  classes.  Soon  he  became  an  "  exhorter  " 
and  it  is  easy  to  believe  his  own  statement  that 
"no  one  slept  while  I  talked." 

The  harsh  conditions  attending  life  among  the 
poor  in  England  he  knew  very  well  all  this  time. 
For,  like  John  Spargo  and  Keir  Hardie,  he  exper- 
ienced child  labor  in  his  own  person.  His  employer, 
at  the  tender  age  of  seven,  was  a  Church  of  Eng- 
land rector  who  paid  him  thirty-six  cents  a  week 
(in  our  money)  for  "scaring  the  birds  from  the 
corn."     "I   used   to   run   up   and   down   the   field 


A  WARM-HEARTED  UNBELIEVER       181 

rattling  a  huge  pair  of  wooden  clappers,"  is  Mr. 
Rush's  own  exposition  of  the  methods  he  employed 
in  this  primitive  agricultural  pursuit.  From  this 
to  sixty  cents  a  week  as  a  farm  helper,  and  from 
that  to  peddling  with  a  basket  were  natural  steps. 
But  since  seventeen,  as  he  relates  with  pardonable 
pride,  he  has  been  his  "own  boss",  —  a  donkey  to 
carry  the  basket  being  his  earliest  capital  invest- 
ment. 

A  furniture  business  in  the  West  End  of  Boston 
enabled  him  to  accumulate  a  modest  competence 
and  do  a  great  deal  of  thinking.  He  is  now  retired 
from  business,  and  so  can  think  uninterruptedly. 
Meanwhile  his  two  sons,  with  a  real  estate  office  in 
the  Old  South  Building,  are  creditably  carrying  on 
the  family  traditions  of  honesty  and  effectiveness. 

I  have  said  that  Mr.  Rush  is  an  ardent  agnostic. 
I  should  add  that  he  is  most  rigorously  and  actively 
ethical.  WTiile  he  insists  on  "one  world  at  a  time", 
he  takes  his  "one  world"  very  seriously.  He 
believes  that  it  is  a  man's  duty  to  help  every  good 
movement  and  to  be  kind  and  just  in  all  his  deal- 
ings- "Lie  down  each  night  with  a  clear  con- 
science," he  counsels.  To  preach  this  is  much;  to 
practise  it  infinitely  more.  Michael  Rush  both 
preaches  it  and  practises  it. 


CHAPTER  X 

A   LOVER   OF   FLOWERS   AND    CHILDREN 
Mrs.  Nellie  McLean  Atwood 

FLAGS  instead  of  fire-crackers,  flowers  in 
the  place  of  the  deadly  toy  pistol!  These 
are  "safe  and  sane"  implements  surely, 
with  which  to  celebrate  the  Fourth  of  July.  And 
if  you  think  that  children  do  not  enjoy  them,  come 
around  to  the  East  Boston  home  of  Mrs.  Nellie 
McLean  Atwood  next  Fourth  of  July  morning  and 
change  your  mind.  For  the  children  begin  to  stand 
in  line  for  their  flags  and  flowers  two  or  three  hours 
before  distribution  of  them  begins  at  ten  o'clock. 
Of  course,  having  been  a  child  myself,  and  being 
still  exceedingly  fond  of  cake,  I  would  be  the  last 
to  say  that  the  spread  which  Mrs.  Atwood  and  her 
co-workers  furnish  afterwards  for  the  children  has 
not  at  least  something  to  do  with  their  great  interest 
in  the  flowers  and  the  flags.  The  Massachusetts 
Floral  Emblem  Society,  of  whose  East  Boston 
branch  Mrs.  Atwood  is  president,  has  always  had 
the  wisdom  to  make  this  attractive  combination  of 
food  and  flowers,  as  I  recall. 

The  money  for  this  Fourth  of  July  celebration  is 
almost  all  raised  by  Mrs.  Atwood  herself  by  means 


A   LOVER   OF   FLOWERS   AND    CHILDREN    183 

of  cake  sales  and  whist  parties.  But  tlie  Flower 
Market  helps  gloriously  by  contributing  nearly 
fifty  thousand  pinks,  roses,  and  lilies  which  they 
send  out  to  East  Boston,  express  prepaid,  as  their 
share  of  this  unique  festival.  Their  generosity  in 
this  matter  is  very  deeply  appreciated  by  Mrs. 
Atwood;  and  she  shows  it  by  giving  at  least  five 
hundred  pinks,  each  Fourth,  to  the  operators  of 
the  East  Boston  Telephone  Exchange,  who  may 
have  been  helping  by  their  service  and  civility,  on 
a  day  when  most  people  are  distinctly  averse  to 
working,  the  very  florists  who  have  contributed 
the  flowers.  Usually  Fourth  of  July  in  Boston  is 
so  hot  as  to  need  no  firework  accompaniments,  and 
it  is  an  exceptionally  trying  day,  with  its  accidents 
and  fires,  for  telephone  girls.  A  large  bunch  of 
flowers  which  each  girl  may  take  home  with  her  is 
not  the  least  gracious,  therefore,  of  the  many 
beautiful  and  kindly  acts  of  service  rendered  by 
Mrs.  Atwood. 

Born  in  Machias,  this  "State  of  Maine"  woman 
has  shown  not  a  little  business  ability  in  preparing 
and  marketing  pure  foods  in  her  own  home,  adding 
considerably  to  her  income  by  making  cake,  bread, 
and  other  foods  of  such  excellent  quality  that  they 
sell  on  sight,  —  and  yet  she  has  time  for  many 
kinds  of  neighborly  service  and  work  looking  to 
community  betterment.  Last  year  she  laid  plans  for 
recreation  work  in  connection  with  the  Ford  Hall 
Town  Meeting,  and  during  the  coming  summer  will 
doubtless  bring  her  playgrounds  into  efiicient  service. 


184  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

Mrs.  Atwood  attended  Mr.  Coleman's  first  series 
of  Sunday-night  lectures,  more  than  seven  years 
ago,  and  has  been  coming  steadily  and  enthusi- 
astically ever  since.  Interest  in  the  meetings  sup- 
plied her  only  solace  during  the  crushing  blow  she 
experienced  a  year  ago  in  the  sudden  death  in  the 
West  of  her  only  son.  Our  various  activities  here 
were  of  very  great  comfort  to  her,  she  says,  partic- 
ularly the  work  we  were  then  carrying  on  for  the 
down-and-out  sons  of  many  other  loving  mothers 
all  over  this  broad  land. 


CHAPTER  XI 

A   STREET   PREACHER 

D.  W.  Carty 

NEARLY  every  one  who  regularly  attends 
the  Ford  Hall  meetings  has  an  interesting 
history,  but  few  stories  that  I  have  heard 
are  so  full  of  fervor  and  color  as  that  of  D.  W. 
Carty,  the  old  gentleman  with  the  serene  face  and 
the  long  white  beard,  who  usually  asks  a  penetrat- 
ing socialistic  question  during  our  question  period. 
Mr.  Carty  humorously  characterized  himself  at 
Town  Meeting  a  few  weeks  ago,  as  a  "  Tipper ary 
boy",  and  it  is  a  fact  that  he  was  born  seventy-two 
years  ago  in  that  district  of  Ireland  recently  made 
famous  by  this  song  of  the  British  soldiery.  He  left 
his  Irish  home  when  only  nine  years  old,  however, 
because  he  could  not  get  on  with  his  stepfather; 
even  at  this  early  age  the  man's  strong  individualism 
appears  to  have  asserted  Itself,  also  his  pronounced 
free-thinking  bent.  For  though  as  a  boy  he  was 
immensely  interested  in  things  religious,  he  could 
never  find  exactly  the  faith  which  utterly  satisfied 
him. 

For  a  while  after  coming  to  America,  he  continued 
to  go  to  church,  first  in  Canada  and  then  in  the 


186  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE   MAKING 

United  States,  but  the  age  of  twenty  found  him 
"hving  the  life  of  a  roustabout  in  Buffalo"  and 
estranged  from  every  form  of  religion.  He  earned 
his  living  at  this  time  as  a  deck-hand  on  a  lake 
steamer,  and  one  night  was  caught  in  a  storm  which 
threatened  the  ship  and  his  life.  In  this  crisis,  the 
habit  of  prayer  returned  and,  clinging  to  the  hulk 
of  the  ship,  he  vowed  to  God  that  he  would  be  a 
better  man  if  his  life  were  saved. 

The  following  Sunday  and  many  successive  Sun- 
days found  him  in  attendance  at  one  or  another  of 
the  popular  churches  of  the  city.  But  no  one 
offered  to  shake  hands  with  the  shy  youth,  and  he 
was  left  with  the  desolating  impression  that  no 
man  cared  for  his  soul.  One  Sunday,  the  saving 
thought  came  to  him  that  he  would  better  go  to  a 
church  on  a  back  street,  and  following  this  sugges- 
tion he  sought  out  the  unfashionable  quarter  of  the 
city  and  walked  for  several  blocks  until,  over  the 
door  of  what  had  formerly  been  a  theater,  his  eye 
caught  the  sign  Free  Church. 

The  congregation  here  proved  to  be  a  Methodist 
one,  presided  over  by  a  very  eloquent  preacher,  and 
the  atmosphere  was  so  congenial  to  young  Carty, 
who  now  had  a  job  in  a  rolling  mill  of  the  city, 
that  every  free  night  at  his  disposal  found  him 
worshipping  in  his  new  church  home.  Soon  a 
season  of  revival  came,  and  he  experienced  con- 
version. Through  a  prayer  which  he  made  at  this 
time,  it  was  revealed  that  here  was  a  preacher  in 
embryo,  and  he  was  assisted  with  books  and  advice 


A  STREET  PREACHER  187 

until  he  had  done  much  to  overcome  the  handicap 
of  an  exceedingly  limited  education.  For  in  Ireland 
the  boy  had  had  almost  no  schooling,  and  the  six 
months  of  regular  teaching  which  he  had  enjoyed 
in  Canada  had  not  helped  him  very  much.  What 
did  prove  of  great  help,  however,  was  the  five 
months  of  tuition  which  came  to  him  soon  after  he 
had  arrived  at  man's  estate,  through  the  kind 
intervention  of  a  church  friend,  who  gave  him  a 
home  for  a  time  just  as  he  had  previously  given  him 
a  job. 

Reading  until  three  or  four  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing in  works  of  theology  and  philosophy  eventually 
developed  this  man's  naturally  analytical  mind  to 
such  an  extent  that  the  discrepancies  to  be  found 
in  the  various  theological  systems  assumed  a  much 
greater  importance  to  him  than  the  body  of  truth 
behind  all  theology.  Yet  all  the  while  he  was  in- 
vesting a  large  part  of  his  time  and  energy  in  lay- 
preaching,  reaching  great  numbers  of  people  in  this 
way  and  stirring  them  powerfully  by  his  fire  and 
eloquence. 

For  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  this  went 
on  until,  one  night  at  Toledo,  Ohio,  after  preaching 
on  the  street  to  three  thousand  people  it  suddenly 
came  to  Mr.  Carty  with  the  force  of  utter  convic- 
tion that  he  did  not  himself  believe  what  he  had  been 
saying.  That  was  the  last  sermon  he  ever  preached. 
Some  of  you  who  read  this  may  remember  having 
heard  him  quite  recently  speaking  in  Pemberton 
Square,  and  it  is  a  fact  that  he  was  there,  not  long 


188  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

ago,  for  twenty-four  nights  in  succession.  But  that 
was  lecturing,  not  preaching,  he  insists.  For,  since 
the  night  when,  following  Emerson,  he  took  himself 
for  his  portion,  "ventured  to  trust  himself  for  a 
taskmaster,"  he  has  definitely  cast  aside  "every- 
thing of  a  religious  nature  that  does  not  present 
to  his  reason  the  elements  of  sound  logic,  actual 
justice  and  plain  common  sense."  Thus,  for  the 
past  twenty-seven  years,  he  has  been  a  progressive 
thinker  of  the  Emersonian-Unitarian  type,  a  most 
pronounced  individualist  in  religion  just  as,  in  other 
directions  he  is  the  freest  of  free  lances.  With 
pardonable  pride  he  asserts  that,  though  he  hasn't 
found  a  fortune  in  America,  he  has  found  himself. 


CHAPTER  XII 
A   THINKER   WHO   WALKS   IN   DARKNESS 

Joseph  Cosgrove 

SEVERAL  times  interesting  questions  about 
Mexico  and  the  Mexican  situation  have  been 
asked  at  our  meetings  by  a  gentle-voiced, 
light-haired  young  man  who  sits  in  the  right-hand 
gallery.  This  man  is  totally  blind,  —  although  that 
fact  is  not  immediately  obvious,  —  and  he  lost  his 
sight  as  a  result  of  a  plot  against  Americans  made 
by  Mexican  mine  workers.  A  very  sad  and  terrible 
story  his.  Yet  he  tells  it  without  bitterness;  and 
adds  that  his  sympathies  always  go  out  to  the  Mex- 
icans even  though  they  are  responsible  for  his 
irreparable  loss.  The  Americans  down  there  are 
usually  overbearing  and  insolent,  he  says,  and  while 
they  bear  away  wealth  with  them,  the  natives 
remain  to  suffer  every  kind  of  poverty  and  want. 
Moreover,  the  plot  which  cost  him  his  sight  was 
not  aimed  at  him  personally;  and  it  grew  out  of 
the  deep  superstition  in  which  these  people  have 
been  plunged  since  time  immemorial. 

Born  in  Massachusetts,  young  Cosgrove  heeded 
the  call  of  the  West;  and  after  spending  five  years 
in  the  gold  and  silver  mines  of  California,  went  to 


190  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

Arizona,  and  thence  to  Mexico  to  prepare  himself 
for  a  position  of  importance  in  the  copper  mining 
district.  The  town  in  which  he  settled  down  there 
was  called  Navidad  (Spanish  for  Christmas),  the 
very  place,  I  believe,  in  which  one  of  the  recent 
insurrections  had  its  birth.  The  fourth  day  of 
May,  Cross  Day,  —  when  a  new  cross  is  set  up  in 
every  Mexican  mine,  —  is  of  all  days  of  the  year  to 
them  most  sacred.  The  exigencies  of  work  in  Mr. 
Cosgrove's  mine  made  it  necessary  for  him  and  an 
English  comrade  to  collect  some  samples  of  ore  on 
this  most  sacred  day,  however:  and  so  the  two 
made  their  way  in  a  cage  to  a  point  several  hundred 
feet  below  the  surface  of  the  mine  to  do  their 
assaying.  They  had  their  drilling  tools  with  them, 
but  chancing  to  find  a  hole  already  drilled,  made 
use  of  it.  As  a  result  the  Englishman  was  killed, 
and  Cosgrove  blinded.  The  hole,  it  appears,  had 
been  filled  with  dynamite  and  topped  with  high 
pressure  caps,  so  that  only  a  few  light  strokes  of 
a  hammer  were  necessary  to  make  it  immediately 
death-dealing. 

For  so  much  of  our  friend's  troubles,  we  may 
blame  the  ignorant  superstition  of  insanely  wrong- 
headed  natives.  But  immediate  medical  assistance 
would  have  alleviated,  if  not  cured,  his  particular 
case.  And  the  American  owners  of  these  rich  and 
productive  mines  had  not  thought  it  worth  while 
to  provide  a  resident  doctor.  Hence  horrible, 
indescribable  suffering  on  the  part  of  this  innocent 
worker.     He   barely    escaped   having   his   eyes   re- 


A   THINKER   WHO   WALKS   IN   DARKNESS    191 

moved  from  his  head  by  main  force  at  the  clumsy 
hands  of  an  orderly  who  had  once  had  some  distant 
connection  with  a  hospital. 

Of  course  it  was  too  late  for  successful  operation 
when,  nearly  four  weeks  later,  young  Cosgrove, 
traveling  with  infinite  pain  in  a  stage-coach  drawn 
by  four  mules,  managed  to  achieve  the  mountain 
journey  of  eighty-six  miles  which  set  him  down  in 
the  presence  of  an  oculist.  So  soon  after  as  he 
could  gather  enough  strength  he  set  out,  alone  and 
blinded,  on  the  journey  of  thirty-five  hundred  miles 
back  to  his  native  Massachusetts. 

That  was  seven  years  ago.  During  these  years 
he  has  taught  himself  Braille,  though  he  does  not 
use  it  much,  and  studied  Socialism.  Accidents 
similar  to  this  are  happening  all  the  time  in  mines; 
but  they  need  not  be  so  terrible  in  their  results,  he 
insists,  if  Capital  provides  proper  medical  atten- 
dance. Yet  he  is  not  a  bitter  person  when  he  talks 
of  Capital,  any  more  than  when  he  talks  of  the 
Mexicans  who  did  him  so  grievous  a  wrong.  He 
declares  that  he  is  very  happy,  too;  and  finds 
plenty  of  things  with  which  to  make  his  days  inter- 
esting as,  attended  only  by  his  cane,  he  comes  to 
Ford  Hall  functions  and  to  Committee  hearings  at 
the  State  House  over  the  way.  In  four  years  he 
has  missed  but  two  Ford  Hall  meetings,  and  his 
voice  breaks  with  deep  feeling  as  he  tries  to  express 
what  the  discovery  of  us  meant  to  him.  "You  were 
joyously  talking  here,"  he  says,  "what  I  had  long 
been  silently  and  sadly  thinking!" 


CHAPTER  XIII 

A   FORD   HALL   PRODUCT 

Freda  Rogolsky 

FROM  Polotzk  and  from  the  Pale  which 
Mary  Antin  has  uniquely  celebrated  comes 
Freda  Rogolsky,  who  has  found  in  the 
Ford  Hall  Meetings  what  Mary  Antin  found  in 
Boston's  public  schools.  Freda  came  to  America 
"the  year  McKinley  was  shot."  That  any  one 
should  have  killed  the  good  man  who  was  presiding 
over  the  destinies  of  her  "Promised  Land"  was  as 
incomprehensible  to  her  as  apathy  towards  our 
American  institutions  is  to  Mary  Antin.  Freda's 
father  had  come  over  two  or  three  years  in  advance 
of  his  family,  and  they  could  not  obtain  passports. 
So  there  was  a  wild  rush  in  the  dead  of  night  across 
the  plateau  which  separates  the  German  and  the 
Russian  frontiers,  and  even  a  short  detention  in 
prison  before  Freda,  in  disguise  (because  she  was 
using  some  one  else's  passport)  attained  safe  harbor 
beneath  the  German  flag.  Then,  two  weeks  in 
Germany  and  four  weeks  in  London  preceded  the 
long  sea  voyage,  after  which  the  little  girl  landed  in 
Boston  and  began  her  education  as  an  American 
citizen  at  a  West  End  school,  which  then  bore  the 


A  FORD  HALL  PRODUCT  193 

name  of  Emerson  and  now,  remodeled,  bears  that 
of  Elizabeth  Peabody.  This  was  fitting,  because 
the  Elizabeth  Peabody  Settlement  House,  of  whose 
classes  Freda  soon  availed  herself,  and  to  whose 
staff  she  is  now  attached  as  a  paid  worker,  was  to 
mean  much  to  her;  almost  as  much  as  Ford  Hall, 
which  the  eager  child  early  discovered,  —  and  be- 
cause of  which  her  educational  career  came  abruptly 
to  an  end  soon  after  she  had  been  graduated  from 
the  grammar  school  in  1908. 

The  occasion  of  Freda's  break  with  Boston's 
educational  system  was  Shakespeare.  Her  class  in 
high  school  was  studying  the  Merchant  of  Venice, 
and  one  of  the  girls  in  the  class  spoke  slightingly 
of  Jews  by  reason  of  the  bloodthirstiness  she  thought 
she  saw  in  Shylock.  "That  is  not  true,"  Freda 
flamed  up.  "The  Jews  are  a  peaceful  race.  There 
is  nothing  murderous  about  them.  How  many 
Jews  have  been  sent  to  the  electric  chair  in  Massa- 
chusetts.? Rather  is  it  the  Christians  who  show 
themselves  bloodthirsty  when  they  massacre  my 
people.  Shylock  seems  to  me  a  far  more  noble 
character  than  Antonio,  who  asks  Shylock  to  give 
up  his  religion.  I  go  to  Ford  Hall  and  there  they 
say  that  every  person  should  stick  to  his  own  reli- 
gion and  be  earnest  about  his  life  in  his  own  way. 
If  only  you  would  all  go  there  you  would  see.  .  .  ." 

Very  likely  there  was  more  in  the  heat  of  the 
moment,  something  which  might  have  justified  the 
teacher  in  asking  Freda  for  the  apology  the  girl 
steadfastly  refused  to  give.     Neither  would  yield. 


194  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

so  Freda  had  to  leave  school.  She  has  not  stopped 
studying,  however,  as  the  following  schedule  shows: 
Sunday  night,  Ford  Hall;  Monday  and  Thursday, 
a  dressmaking  class  at  the  Young  Women's  Chris- 
tian Association;  Wednesday,  the  Efficiency  course 
which  Miner  Chipman  is  giving  at  the  School  of 
Social  Science;  Tuesday  evening,  preparation  at  the 
Public  Library  for  the  college  extension  course  in 
English  composition  which  she  is  taking  this  year 
for  the  second  time;  and  one  evening  a  week  for  the 
Ford  Hall  Town  Meeting. 

All  of  which,  when  added  to  work  every  week 
day  at  the  Settlement  and  attendance  every  Sunday 
morning  at  the  Temple  Israel,  must  make  Freda's 
life  in  the  Promised  Land  a  very  full  one  at  present. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

A   DISTINGUISHED    COLORED    LAWYER 

Butler  R.  Wilson 

ONLY  two  or  three  colored  men  come  regu- 
larly to  Ford  Hall.  One  of  them  is  Willis 
Q.  Browne,  who,  though  he  is  too  modest 
to  allow  a  sketch  of  himself  to  be  prepared  for  this 
book,  almost  always  musters  sufficient  courage  to 
ask  the  speaker  a  question.  Another  regular  repre- 
sentative of  the  negro  race  here  Sunday  nights  is 
Butler  R.  W^ilson,  who  is  a  prosperous  lawyer  in 
Boston  and  a  member  of  our  citizens'  committee. 
When  I  asked  him  why  his  race  is  so  sparsely 
represented  at  our  meetings  he  said:  "It  is  because 
the  colored  people  are  religious  folk,  and  are  in  the 
habit  of  attending  services  in  their  own  churches 
Sunday  nights.  They  are  really  very  deeply 
interested  in  all  the  problems  discussed  at  Ford  Hall, 
though,  and,  if  you  met  in  the  afternoon  instead  of 
the  evening,  would  be  on  hand  in  large  numbers." 
This  answer  illustrates  the  kind  of  illuminating 
information  Butler  Wilson  is  always  dispensing.  If 
you  want  facts  and  not  oratory  on  any  colored 
problem,  go  to  him.  Boston  long  ago  found  out  that 
he  has  an  excellent  habit  of  being  just  as  sane  and 


196  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

judicial  when  discussing  the  problems  of  the  colored 
people  as  when  discussing  any  other  problems,  and 
it  values  him  accordingly.  For  to  a  mind  essen- 
tially fair,  he  adds  exact  knowledge.  Though  the 
Massachusetts  Senator  now  in  Charles  Sumner's 
place  at  Washington  appears  not  to  have  known  it, 
Butler  Wilson  was  able  to  tell  him  that  Massa- 
chusetts, in  1843,  on  the  petition  of  William  Lloyd 
Garrison,  repealed  a  law  to  prevent  intermarriage 
between  the  whites  and  the  colored  people,  —  just 
such  a  law  as  was  recently  up  for  discussion  at 
Washington.  We  have  very  little  intermarriage 
in  Massachusetts  to-day  between  whites  and 
negroes,  and  Mr.  Wilson  was  undoubtedly  right  in 
pronouncing  the  impending  bill  "uncalled  for, 
meddlesome  and  exceedingly  irritating."  It  is 
related,  of  course,  to  the  offensive  segregation  rules 
passed  some  time  since  in  the  government  depart- 
ments at  Washington.  These  rules  are  said  to  have 
been  made  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  inter- 
marriage; the  argument  was  that  white  people 
and  colored  people,  from  working  together  in  the 
departments,  got  to  know  each  other  outside  and  so 
contracted  marriages.  Yet  a  careful  investigation 
showed  that  no  such  marriages  had  occurred.  Far 
from  there  being  any  need  of  such  a  law  as  has 
been  threatened,  there  is  the  utmost  necessity  that 
legal  possibility  of  marriage  shall  remain.  Other- 
wise colored  girls  and  women  are  utterly  at  the 
mercy  of  white  libertines.  And  no  protection  of 
any  kind  is  afforded  to  children  that  may  spring 


J 


A  DISTINGUISHED   COLORED  LAWYER       197 

from  illicit  unions,  there  being  no  bastardy  law  in 
the  Southern  States. 

All  this  and  much  more  about  present  negro 
problems  I  learned  during  a  long  talk  with  Butler 
R.  Wilson  in  his  pleasant  law  office  opposite  City 
Hall  on  School  Street.  I  had  never  been  able  to 
understand,  for  instance,  why  the  negro  who  knows 
how  to  read  and  write  cannot  vote  down  South. 
He  explained  it  to  me.  The  presence  in  the  office 
of  three  registrars,  it  appears,  is  technically  neces- 
sary down  there  when  a  man  is  qualifying  for 
citizenship.  When  a  colored  man  comes  in,  this 
rule  is  utilized  to  his  disadvantage.  Mr.  Wilson 
told  of  a  colored  friend  of  his,  the  principal  of  a 
school  in  a  Southern  city,  who  could  never  register 
because,  when  he  came  in,  three  men  could  never 
be  found  on  duty;  meanwhile,  by  virtue  of  the 
*'grandfather  clause",  many  white  men  who  are 
quite  illiterate  may  vote.  Possessing  a  grandfather 
who  fought  in  the  Mexican  War  puts  them  beyond 
the  reach  of  literacy  tests. 

In  reply  to  a  question  as  to  why  so  few  negroes 
are  in  the  Socialist  party,  Mr.  Wilson  informed  me 
that  in  New  York  State  and  in  the  Middle  West, 
many  colored  people  are  Socialists.  He  added  that 
it  is  his  opinion  that  the  Socialist  party  may  split 
on  the  negro  question. 

Mr.  Wilson  is  a  Republican,  and  he  himself  has 
never  suffered  any  of  the  hardships  that  fall  to  the 
lot  of  so  many  negroes.  For  though  he  was  born 
in  Georgia,  eighty  miles  from  Atlanta,  he  had  plenty 


198  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

of  educational  privileges,  and  after  graduating  from 
the  University  of  Atlanta,  in  1881,  studied  law  at 
Boston  University.  Entering  upon  practice  here, 
he  was  quite  promptly  able  to  build  up  a  good  list 
of  clients,  most  of  whom,  rather  oddly,  are  white 
people.  Mrs.  Wilson,  who  boasts  of  an  uncle  and 
a  cousin  who  were  with  John  Brown  at  Harper's 
Ferry,  feels  the  wrongs  of  her  race  much  more 
personally  and  passionately  than  does  her  judicial- 
minded  husband.  As  she  talks,  she  can  make  an 
audience  feel  them  too!  Five  charming  children, 
one  of  whom  is  a  junior  in  Radcliffe  College,  and 
another  of  whom  is  a  sophomore  at  Harvard, 
brighten  the  Wilson  home.  It  will  be  interesting 
to  see  what  they  do  with  their  promising  young 
lives. 


CHAPTER  XV 

A   YOUTH   WHO   BEGAN   AS   A    NEWSBOY 
Jacob  London 

WE,  at  Ford  Hall,  know  him  as  Jack  London, 
but  his  name  is  Jacob  London  when 
he  signs  it  to  letters  designed  to  push 
Ford  Hall  Folks.  He  is  coming  to  be  more  and 
and  more  glad  all  the  while  that  his  personality 
is  linked  for  all  time  with  that  of  the  ancient  people 
of  Israel. 

Jack's  pride  in  Ford  Hall  Folks  is  unbounded; 
and  well  it  may  be,  for  he  is  its  father.  All  of 
the  old  guard  will  remember  how,  at  the  Kingsley 
Hall  meetings  about  three  years  ago,  he  first  began 
to  urge  upon  us  this  matter  of  publishing  a  paper. 
And  continued  to  urge  it  until  his  dream  had 
to  become  a  reality!  And  it  was  his  persistent 
hammering  that  led  to  the  publishing  of  our  book 
of  prayers  and  to  the  formation  of  the  plans  for 
this  book. 

It  seems  to  have  been  like  that  always  with  Jack; 
and  this  same  quality  of  smiling  persistence  will  one 
day,  I  doubt  not,  give  him  that  important  position 
in  the  government  of  his  adopted  city  towards  which 
he  has  been  steadily  working  for  some  years  now. 


200  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE   MAKING 

For  Jack  would  be  a  lawyer;  and  a  lawyer  who  has 
specialized  in  corporation  and  municipal  law!  He 
says  that  he  has  wanted  this  ever  since  he  was  old 
enough  to  want  anything  intelligently,  and  that  this 
ambition  has  helped  him  and  spurred  him  on 
through  all  the  hardships  of  his  short,  but  eventful 
life. 

Jack's  mother  is  an  orthodox  Russian  Jewess,  but 
he  himself  best  remembers  Vienna  of  the  cities  in 
which  he  passed  his  childhood.  And  of  the  long 
and  toilsome  journey  from  the  Austrian  capital  to 
Boston  on  Massachusetts  Bay,  he  recalls  most 
distinctly  the  six  months  that  the  little  family  had 
to  stay  in  London.  They  would  have  had  to  stay 
quite  a  while  anyhow,  because  the  brave  little 
mother  had  to  earn  by  washing  and  other  ill-paid 
work  the  money  which  was  necessary  to  take  them 
all  on  to  America.  But  because  Jack,  playing  ball, 
broke  a  window  which  cost  a  whole  lot  of  money  to 
replace,  they  had  to  stay  considerably  longer  than 
they  would  otherwise  have  done.  Jack  speaks 
rather  sadly  of  that  now. 

But  he  cannot  be  sad  long,  this  youth  of  the 
cheerful  grin.  He  will  tell  you  very  happily  that 
he  once  got  thirty-nine  separate  and  distinct  rattan 
punishments  in  a  month  while  a  pupil  in  the  Quincy 
School  down  on  Tyler  Street,  Boston;  he  adds  that 
he  deserved  them  all.  His  mother  was  supporting 
her  three  children  at  this  time  by  keeping  a  little 
grocery  store  on  Oneida  Street  where  they  all  lived, 
Jack  eking  out  the  family  income  by  selling  papers 


A  YOUTH  WHO  BEGAN  AS  A  NEWSBOY    201 

and  blacking  boots.  He  could  have  continued  to 
do  this  and  to  attend  school,  but  after  he  had  got 
just  a  taste  of  "higher  education"  at  the  Boston 
Latin  School,  the  lessons  of  the  street  bore  their 
fruit,  and  he  left  home  to  fend  for  himself.  Finding 
a  job  as  plumber's  assistant  at  three  dollars  and 
fifty  cents  a  week  was  not  hard:  but  Jack  was  not 
the  boy  to  stick  to  such  a  calling;  and  soon  he  was 
again  selling  papers  and  leading  the  alluring  vaga- 
bond life  of  the  street. 

Then  it  was  that  Philip  Davis  found  him  and 
interested  him  in  the  work  of  the  Civic  Service 
House.  This  was  the  first  step  in  Jack's  upward 
career.  The  next  step  came  when,  having  heard 
"Daddy"  George  talk  at  Keith's  Theatre  about  the 
George  Junior  Republic,  Jack  decided  that  he  would 
go  to  Freeville,  New  York,  and  become  a  "citizen." 
The  Republic  made  a  man  of  him.  Always  a  good 
public  speaker,  he  won  many  prizes  up  there  for 
proficiency  in  this  direction;  and  he  learned  also  a 
great  deal  about  self-respect  and  self-control. 

He  was  now  ready  to  respond  to  Ford  Hall. 
When  he  heard  Freda  Rogolsky  descant  on  our 
charms  down  at  the  Civic  Service  House  Camp  in 
West  Gloucester  three  summers  ago,  he  resolved  to 
get  acquainted  with  us  just  as  soon  as  we  opened 
in  the  fall.  His  first  meeting  was  the  one  with 
which  Doctor  Thomas  Hall  inaugurated  our  season 
of  1912-1913.  A  little  later  that  year  the  Ford 
Hall  Folks  organized.  And  at  almost  their  first 
meeting,  Jack  emerged,  pleading  that  we  have  "a 


202  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

paper  of  our  own."  He  had  been  editor  and  busi- 
ness manager  of  a  paper  at  the  Republic,  you  see, 
and  so  knew  something  about  the  joys  and  cares 
of  such  an  enterprise.  Mr.  Coleman,  who  knows 
nearly  all  there  is  to  know  about  the  publishing 
business,  was  of  enormous  service  to  our  boy  pub- 
lisher as  the  little  paper  developed.  "I  learned  for 
one  thing  that  he  never  takes  excuses,"  Jack  said 
to  me  naively  the  other  day.  Jack  is  not  so  prolific 
in  excuses  as  he  was  before  he  learned  this. 

During  the  early  part  of  Jack's  connection  with 
Ford  Hall  Folks,  he  was  earning  his  living  in  a  de- 
partment store.  But  he  had  led  much  too  free 
a  life  to  submit  docilely  to  the  rules  and  regulations 
governing  such  institutions  as  these,  and  so  was 
profoundly  unhappy  in  his  work.  He  was  still 
something  of  a  vagabond,  having  a  cheap  little 
room  in  which  he  cooked  his  own  meals  and  did  his 
own  washing.  But  he  always  managed  to  look 
exceedingly  neat  and  to  appear  well  fed.  For  he 
had  pride,  —  the  pride,  shall  we  say,  of  his  race? 
Once  when  he  threw  up  a  disagreeable  job,  he  went 
from  Saturday  noon  until  Monday  night  with 
absolutely  no  food, —  after  exhausting  the  small 
sum  he  had  been  able  to  raise  by  pawning  the  pre- 
cious watch  won  in  a  speaking  contest.  Frequently 
he  lived  three  days  on  a  can  of  beans,  —  and  kept 
smiling  all  the  time. 

Last  year  he  studied  law  at  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association;  and  for  some  time  now  he 
has  been  living  very  comfortably  in  the  splendid 


A  YOUTH  WHO  BEGAN  AS  A  NEWSBOY    203 

new  home  of  that  organization  up  on  Huntington 
Avenue.  At  present  he  has  a  good  job  in  which  his 
persistence  and  resourcefulness  are  proving  to  be 
exceedingly  valuable  assets.  And  he  is  taking  the 
second-year  law  course.  In  the  public  speaking  so 
dear  to  his  heart,  he  is  finding  practice  at  the  Town 
Meeting  and  by  giving  little  talks  to  church 
bodies  near  Boston  on  "Democracy  and  The  Ford 
Hall  Spirit."  Jack  is  also  an  enthusiastic  member  of 
the  Committee  in  charge  of  the  Forum  at  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association.  He  does  not  need  to 
tell  every  one  whom  he  meets  that  he  is  happy. 
But  he  tells  them  just  the  same.  And  he  adds  that 
it  is  all  due  to  the  five  men  whom  he  calls  his 
"hand  of  life:"  Philip  Davis  who  helped  him  when 
nobody  else  cared,  "Daddy"  George,  George  Gallup, 
Thomas  Dreier,  and  George  W.  Coleman. 

Jack  is  very  fond  of  all  these  men,  but  he  adores 
Mr.  Coleman.  If  you  have  never  had  this  kind 
of  admiration  for  an  older  person  who  was  at  once 
a  guide,  friend,  and  dear  playfellow  you  will  not 
understand,  —  as  I  did  very  well,  —  why  Jack's 
always  happy  face  was  simply  radiant  one  Saturday. 
"I  am  going  to  play  hand-ball  with  him  at  the 
Gym  this  afternoon,"  he  confided,  "and  then  I  am 
going  to  his  house  for  supper,  and  after  supper  we 
are  going  to  the  theater  together!  !  !"  I  did  not 
need  to  ask  who  the  "him"  was  nor  why  Jack 
looked  so  supremely  joyful.  I  have  been  a  hero- 
worshipper  myself  in  my  time. 


CHAPTER   XVI 

AN    IDEALISTIC   BUSINESS   MAN 
George  B.  Gallup 

IT  helps  you  to  understand  George  Brewster 
Gallup  to  know  that  he  writes  poetry.  Some 
of  his  serious  verse  has  been  very  highly 
praised  by  critics  who  know  good  work  in  this  field ; 
and,  though  he  says  little  about  this  verse-writing, 
one  feels  the  poet  behind  the  advertising  man  when- 
ever Mr.  Gallup  talks  his  favorite  theme,  city  plan- 
ning. To  this  man,  city  planning  means  bringing 
the  Holy  City  down  to  earth  —  "making  His 
Kingdom  come",  in  the  striking  phraseology  of  the 
world's  greatest  prayer;  to  a  sermon  he  once  heard 
preached  on  the  text,  "Seek  ye  first  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven",  Mr.  Gallup  dates  his  spiritual  rebirth 
into  this  passion  of  his  life. 

George  Brewster  Gallup  is  of  the  purest  Puritan 
strain  so  far  as  his  family  is  concerned.  He  doesn't 
bother  much  about  this,  for  he  is  a  democrat  with  a 
big  D,  but  he  says  it  strengthens  his  sinews  to 
remember  it  when  he  is  fighting,  against  great  odds, 
to  make  this  world  a  fit  place  for  children  to  be 
born  into.  For  that  to  him  is  the  whole  meaning 
and  purpose  of  "city  planning":    the  elimination 


AN  IDEALISTIC  BUSINESS  MAN         205 

of  the  inhumanities  and  barbarities  of  cities  as  we 
see  them  to-day.  He  once  wrote  for  the  leading 
paper  of  a  city  not  a  thousand  miles  from  Boston  a 
series  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  articles  which  cov- 
ered the  whole  field  of  city  planning  as  we  now 
know  it;  and  yet  this  science  had  not  then  been 
given  a  name.  It  was  his  idealistic  enthusiasm  for 
a  more  perfect  city  that  first  drew  him  and  George 
W.  Coleman  together.  This  has  meant  much  to 
the  Ford  Hall  Meetings. 

Mr.  Gallup  was  born  in  a  little  town  near  Albany, 
New  York,  and  served  his  newspaper  apprenticeship 
as  reporter  on  the  Albany  Argus.  Then  he  became 
interested  in  library  work  and  helped  to  organize 
the  first  State  Library  Association  of  which  Melville 
Dewey  was  president.  Somewhat  later  he  was 
called  to  a  newspaper  position  in  another  New  York 
city  where,  at  that  time,  capital  and  labor  were 
engaged  in  deadly  combat.  The  vision  of  what  the 
city  might  become  if  these  two  opposing  forces  were 
made  to  work  together  smote  Mr.  Gallup  with 
mighty  force,  and  he  began  to  try  what  he  could  do 
towards  bringing  this  happy  thing  to  pass.  The 
president  of  the  labor  union  was  a  friend  of  his  and 
so  was  the  president  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce. 
Through  Mr.  Gallup's  good  offices,  the  two  were 
made  to  know  each  other  as  men  and  as  citizens, 
with  the  result  that  the  union  label  was  soon  to  be 
found  on  all  the  city  printing  and  men  began  to  be 
proud  of  residence  in  a  community  of  which  they 
had  heretofore  been  ashamed. 


206  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

In  the  great  work  of  stimulating  a  similar  pride 
in  our  New  England  communities,  Mr.  Gallup  now 
gives  scores  of  addresses  every  year  before  all  sorts 
of  civic  bodies  on  The  Perfect  City  as  he  sees  it. 
At  the  Ford  Hall  Town  Meeting  his  vision  has 
already  kindled  the  imagination  of  the  citizens  and 
has  borne  fruit  in  actual  civic  improvement.  For 
Mr.  Gallup  is  quite  as  ready  to  lend  his  shoulder 
as  his  silver  tongue  to  the  boosting  of  any  good 
movement;  seconded  by  Mrs.  Gallup,  he  has  been 
of  immense  service  to  those  in  charge  of  our  soup 
kitchen  enterprise. 

The  Gallups  are,  indeed,  a  refreshingly  congenial 
and  like-minded  couple,  and  their  one  son  is  now 
enthusiastically  following  his  father's  profession. 
Such  families  serve  to  keep  our  faith  firm  in  the 
principles  upon  which  New  England  was  builded. 


PART  IV 

A  REVIEW  OF  ADDRESSES 
SIX   TYPICAL   FORD   HALL   TALKS 


INTRODUCTION  TO  PART  IV 

AT  first  it  was  very  difficult  to  find  suitable 
speakers  for  the  Ford  Hall  platform. 
Now  we  have  an  embarrassment  of  riches. 
In  the  beginning  it  was  not  so  easy  to  get  lecturers 
to  understand  the  limitations  we  were  under  in 
avoiding  everything  that  might  give  offense  to  race, 
class,  or  creed.  We  granted  the  widest  liberty, 
but  permitted  no  license.  We  welcomed  difference 
of  opinion,  but  would  not  tolerate  rancor  and  bitter- 
ness. But  in  spite  of  these  very  necessary  limita- 
tions, we  wanted  real  messages:  no  colorless, 
denatured,  platitudinous  declarations  would  serve 
our  purpose  in  the  very  least. 

For  our  first  season  and  some  little  time  after- 
wards, we  drew  heavily  on  those  speakers  who  had 
made  conspicuous  successes  at  Cooper  Union,  in  New 
York,  and  many  of  whom  I  personally  had  heard 
Sunday  evenings  on  the  Cooper  Union  platform. 
For  some  time  after  starting,  we  also  had  to  explain 
a  good  deal  to  speakers  why  we  were  asking  them 
to  speak  for  us  without  compensation.  I  remember 
well  the  compromise  we  entered  into  with  one  of 
our  most  popular  speakers  the  first  time  he  ever 


210  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

came  to  us.  It  was  in  that  period  when  the  size 
of  our  audience  was  growing  very  rapidly.  He  said 
that  if  he  were  not  to  receive  his  regular  fee  of 
seventy-five  dollars,  we  must  at  least  assure  him 
an  audience  large  enough  to  make  it  worth  his 
while  to  give  us  his  services.  He  insisted  on  the 
regular  fee,  but  agreed  to  deduct  ten  dollars  for 
every  hundred  people  in  the  audience.  As  there 
were  nearly  a  thousand  people  present  that  night, 
he  was  indebted  to  us  about  twenty -five  dollars! 

As  Ford  Hall  grew  in  reputation  with  each  pass- 
ing season,  we  found  that  well-known  speakers, 
such  as  we  were  after,  understood  all  about  the 
work  we  were  doing  and  counted  it  a  privilege  to 
have  a  share  in  our  program.  Now  we  haven't 
dates  enough  by  half  for  the  list  of  speakers  whom 
we  should  like  to  invite  each  season. 

Sometimes  we  assign  just  the  particular  topic  we 
want  to  have  presented,  but  frequently  we  ask  the 
speaker  to  suggest  topics  from  which  we  make  our 
choice.  Perhaps  it  is  the  man  we  want  above 
everything  else,  and  we  care  little  what  topic  he 
takes,  while  at  other  times  we  hunt  around  to  find 
just  the  right  person  to  handle  some  special  topic 
that  we  have  in  mind. 

In  the  following  addresses,  —  six  in  number,  — 
we  have  a  fair  presentation  of  the  topics  and 
speakers  that  are  most  representative  of  the  Ford 
Hall  platform.  They  are  arranged  in  chronological 
order,  the  first  one,  on  "The  Religion  of  the  Crowd," 
having  been  given  at  the  end  of  the  second  season. 


INTRODUCTION  211 

six  years  ago,  and  "The  Search  After  God"  having 
come  at  New  Year's  time,  1915.  It  is  interesting 
to  note  that  both  of  these  were  wholly  religious  in 
their  appeal.  Two  of  the  others  deal  with  Socialism, 
one  for  and  one  against,  while  the  remaining  two 
treat  of  democracy  from  different  points  of  view. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  none  of  these 
addresses  were  ever  put  in  manuscript  form.  They 
were  all  delivered  extemporaneously  and  were  taken 
down  and  condensed  by  our  official  stenographer. 
They  are  not  supposed  to  be  in  the  best  literary 
form  as  here  presented,  but  are  intended  to  be  a 
fairly  faithful  approximation  of  the  gist  of  what  was 
really  said.  The  same  thing  applies  to  the  ques- 
tions and  answers  which  were  reported  in  the  same 
manner.  We  have  no  record  of  the  questions  and 
answers  that  followed  the  address  on  "The  Religion 
of  the  Crowd."  We  were  not  publishing  any  paper 
at  that  time,  and  it  is  only  by  chance  that  we  have 
any  record  of  the  address  itself. 

The  author  or  editor  of  this  book,  whatever  he 
may  properly  be  called,  wishes  to  disown  all  respon- 
sibility for  printing  his  address  on  "The  Religion 
of  the  Crowd."  It  was  called  for  and  insisted  upon 
by  the  publishers  of  this  book.  Whatever  merit  it 
may  lack  as  an  address,  it  certainly  embodies  the 
Ford  Hall  point  of  view  on  religion,  and  explains 
and  justifies  the  establishment  of  open  forums  shot 
through  with  the  religious  spirit. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  we  haven't  a  fuller 
account    of    Father    Gasson's    address    on    "The 


212  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

Menace  of  Socialism."  We  have  drawn  upon  a 
newspaper  report  for  what  we  do  present.  This 
was  given  in  the  period  before  we  had  an  official 
stenographer.  Those  who  heard  this  address  will 
never  forget  the  occasion.  Of  course  the  hall  was 
thronged,  and  thousands  were  turned  away.  Every 
moment  of  two  mortal  hours  was  tense  with  strain 
and  feverish  with  excitement.  Still  there  was  no 
untoward  happening,  and  mutual  respect  prevailed 
throughout.     Both  sides  learned  something. 

Professor  Fagnani  is  especially  beloved  at  Ford 
Hall,  not  alone  for  his  own  worth's  sake,  but  also 
because  it  was  he  who  was  the  inspiring  speaker  the 
first  time  I  ever  entered  Cooper  Union,  and  it  was 
there  we  got  our  idea  for  the  Ford  Hall  Meetings. 
This  address  on  "God  and  Democracy"  is  still 
quoted  among  the  devotees  of  Ford  Hall,  although 
it  is  years  since  they  heard  it.  Our  report  of  it  is 
all  too  brief. 

Editor  Hapgood  captures  his  Ford  Hall  audience 
every  time,  and  seemingly  without  trying.  He  is 
entirely  without  oratorical  arts,  never  grows  im- 
passioned and  is  always  painstakingly  fair,  no 
matter  what  topic  he  is  handling.  But  a  Ford 
Hall  audience  would  sit  and  listen  to  him  all  night, 
a  decided  comphment,  it  seems  to  me,  to  the 
thoughtfulness  and  seriousness  of  that  audience. 
And  ihey  do  especially  like  to  hear  him  talk  about 
the  stage  or  the  press. 

Reverend  John  Haynes  Holmes  is  the  young 
man   eloquent   of   the   Ford   Hall   platform.     The 


INTRODUCTION  213 

sweep  of  his  oratory  is  irresistible,  and  he  carries 
conviction  by  storm.  I  shall  never  forget  the  first 
question  plunked  at  him  the  first  time  our  people 
heard  him.  "Do  you  preach  those  principles  in 
your  own  pulpit  among  the  rich  in  New  York?" 
was  the  searching  interrogation.  An  emphatic 
affirmative  answer  made  him  a  friend  of  that  audi- 
ence for  all  time  to  come.  Even  those  who  do  not 
agree  with  him  like  him  just  the  same. 

Probably  the  Ford  Hall  people  ^vere  never  put  to 
a  severer  test  of  seriousness  and  brain-power  than 
they  were  the  night  Doctor  George  A.  Gordon  led 
them  through  the  age-old  labyrinth  of  speculative 
philosophy  in  "The  Search  After  God."  It  could 
have  been  but  a  short  time  before  when  many  of 
them  would  not  have  been  willing  to  listen  to  a 
minister  at  all  on  any  religious  subject.  There 
they  sat  for  two  blessed  hours,  discussing  God  with 
a  doctor  of  divinity  whom  they  had  never  seen  and 
very  likely  had  never  heard  of  before.  And  Doctor 
Gordon  enjoyed  the  novel  situation  as  much  as  they 

did. 

G.    W.    C. 


CHAPTER  I 

THE    RELIGION   OF    THE    CROWD 

An  Address  Delivered  at  the  Ford  Hall 
Meeting,  April  11,  1909 

By  George  W.  Coleman 

I  AM  sure  that  not  one  of  you  expects  that  I  am 
going  to  attempt  an  oration  or  a  great  speech 
to-night;  that  is  not  in  my  Hne.  I  would  not 
for  a  moment  undertake  to  put  ^nyself  by  the  side 
of  those  splendid  men  who  have  stood  on  this  plat- 
form and  thrilled  us  with  their  magnificent  mes- 
sages; but  I  do  want  to  have  a  frank,  plain,  homely 
talk  with  you  with  reference  to  something  that  has 
been  very  much  upon  my  mind  and  heart  for  three 
years,  and  increasingly  so  this  winter,  as  we  have 
been  gathered  together  here  Sunday  nights. 

When  I  said  to  a  friend  of  mine  the  other  day, 
a  Baptist  minister,  that  I  was  going  to  talk  here  on 
"The  Religion  of  the  Crowd,"  he  said:  "You  will 
find  more  religion  there,  if  you  look  for  it,  than 
most  people  think.  The  hardest  people  that  I  have 
had  to  get  along  with  have  always  been  the  best 
people,  —  from  their  own  point  of  view." 

The  Religion  of  the  Crowd  that  I  want  to  talk 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE   CROWD         215 

to  you  about  to-night  is  not  a  new  religion.  When 
Bishop  Brooks  was  about  to  sail  for  England,  a 
friend  jocosely  remarked  to  him:  "Well,  Bishop, 
you  may  possibly  find  on  the  other  side  a  new 
religion  that  you  can  bring  to  Boston;  but,  if  you 
do,  be  sure  it  is  one  that  you  can  get  through  the 
Custom  House."  And  the  Bishop  replied:  "Oh! 
there  will  be  no  trouble  about  that  at  all.  If  I 
can  find  a  religion  that  will  be  popular  enough  to 
bring  to  Boston,  you  may  be  sure  there  will  be  no 
duties  attached  to  it."  So  the  Religion  of  the  Crowd 
is  not  a  new  religion  to  introduce  to  Boston,  which 
now  has  more  religions  than  some  of  us  know  what 
to  do  with;  neither  is  it  that  old-time  religion  which 
some  of  us  heard  during  the  Chapman-Alexander 
revival  meetings.  You  may  remember  they  had  a 
very  popular  song,  the  refrain  of  which  ran  like 
this:  "The  old-time  religion  is  good  enough  for 
me."  Now  there  is  a  sense  in  which  that  is  true. 
Every  man  who  had  a  saintly  mother  and  an 
honored  father  must  certainly  hold  in  reverence 
that  old-time  religion  of  his  mother  or  father,  no 
matter  how  far  he  may  have  wandered  from  their 
religious  moorings.  We  certainly  have  a  reverence 
and  respect  for  the  old-time  religion  that  made  the 
saintly  mother  and  the  honored  father  what  they 
were.  But  there  is  another  sense  in  which  that  is 
not  quite  so  true,  in  which  we  do  not  accept  the 
old-time  religion;  and  that  was  put  to  us  very 
pointedly  by  Rabbi  Wise  when  he  said  on  this 
platform,  "Be  careful  that  the  milestones  of  your 


216  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE   MAKING 

fathers  do  not  become  the  millstones  around  your 
neck.  You  are  not  to  stand,"  he  said,  "where 
your  fathers  stood,  no  matter  how  noble  they  were, 
no  matter  how  great  a  work  they  did  in  the  world; 
you  are  to  start  where  your  fathers  stopped,  and 
keep  going  in  the  same  direction  in  which  they 
started." 

Then  another  rabbi,  —  Rabbi  Schulman,  —  pre- 
sented it  in  another  way.  You  will  remember  that 
he  talked  to  us  about  "Things  That  Separate  Men 
and  Things  That  Unite  Them",  and  how  strong 
and  true  and  noble  he  was  in  pointing  out  the  value 
of  the  things  that  divide,  as  well  as  the  value  of 
the  things  that  unite.  Also  that  the  last  section 
of  his  address  dealt  with  religion  in  the  same  way, 
and  how  succinctly  he  put  it  when  he  said,  "Reli- 
gions divide,  but  religion  unites",  recognizing  the 
value  of  the  religions  that  divide  and  the  training 
of  different  people  with  different  characteristics  in 
different  ways,  but  asking  us  to  understand  also 
that  religion,  fundamental  and  broad  and  deep, 
unites  men. 

It  is  said  that  Edison,  the  great  inventor,  as  he 
looked  about  on  the  restless  Atlantic  Ocean,  was 
very  much  disturbed  by  the  enormous  waste  of 
physical  energy  that  he  saw  in  the  tossing  of  the 
turbulent  waves.  It  distressed  his  soul  to  realize  that 
that  terrible  waste  of  energy  going  on  all  the  time 
could  not  be  harnessed  for  human  purposes.  I 
think  man,  when  he  looks  out  upon  life,  —  upon  the 
sea  of  humanity,  —  and  sees  the  tossings  and  the 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  CROWD        217 

turnings  of  human  souls  and  the  restlessness  of 
human  nature,  must  feel  that  there  is  a  tremendous 
loss  of  moral  and  spiritual  energy  that  we  as  a 
people,  as  a  human  race,  have  not  learned  to  har- 
ness up  and  to  use. 

Three  years  ago,  I  got  a  vision  that  helped  me  to 
see  for  the  first  time  in  my  life  that  there  was  a 
way  in  which  these  enormous  waste  energies  might 
be  in  some  measure  harnessed  up.  That  was  when 
I  stepped  one  Sunday  into  that  meeting  in  Cooper 
Union,  —  a  memorable  night  in  my  life.  I  shall 
never  forget  it  as  long  as  I  live;  for  there  for  the 
first  time  I  saw  what  possibly  I  might  have  sensed 
only  in  my  dreams:  namely,  men  of  every  faith 
and  of  no  faith  sitting  down  together,  as  it  were, 
in  heavenly  places  and  discussing,  to  their  mutual 
profit  and  joy,  moral  and  spiritual  truths.  And  it 
is  about  that  thing  that  they  have  been  doing  in 
Cooper  Union  for  twelve  years,  and  that  we  have 
been  doing  for  a  year  or  more  in  Ford  Hall,  that 
I  want  to  speak  to  you. 

There  have  been  three  great  forces  working  in  the 
world  during  the  last  century  that  have  been  draw- 
ing men  together,  forcing  men  together,  removing 
geographical  barriers,  removing  barriers  of  prejudice 
and  ignorance.  One  has  been  the  introduction  of 
steam  and  the  discovery  of  coal.  With  the  develop- 
ment of  all  the  modern  arts,  the  means  of  trans- 
portation and  the  means  of  communication  have 
developed  so  that  men  are  now  brought  together  in 
great  companies  in  factories,  where  heretofore  they 


218  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

worked  isolated  in  small  shops  scattered  all  over 
the  face  of  the  country.  This  single  transforma- 
tion in  the  last  hundred  years  has  been  enough 
to  turn  the  world  upside  down.  But  working 
right  alongside  of  it  has  been  another  great  force: 
that  has  been  the  scientific  method  of  thinking  or 
reasoning,  by  which  we  have  learned  to  go  and  find 
out  what  the  facts  are,  to  prove  the  facts,  to  gather 
them  together,  to  compare,  to  collate,  to  analyze, 
and  then  find  out  what  they  teach,  and  go  in  the 
direction  in  which  they  do  teach.  That  is  the 
scientific  method  of  thinking;  and  it  has  revolu- 
tionized the  intellectual  world  just  as  the  discovery 
of  coal  and  steam  has  revolutionized  the  physical 
world. 

A  third  force,  an  idea,  has  been  receiving  its 
greatest  development  during  the  last  hundred  years, 
and  that  is  the  democratic  spirit.  It  began  first  to 
express  itself  in  religion,  then  in  politics,  and  is  now 
trying  with  all  its  might  to  work  its  way  out  in 
industry,  business,  commerce,  and  economics. 

Now  when  you  stop  to  think  that  these  three 
tremendous  ideas  have  been  working  for  a  century, 
bringing  about  all  these  enormous  changes,  is  it 
any  wonder  that  we  have  come  to  a  place  where  we 
can  begin  to  consider  such  a  thing  as  the  Religion 
of  the  Crowd.'' 

There  are  signs  of  the  times  right  here  in  our  own 
day  that  indicate  how  this  is  being  worked  out. 
Think  of  our  religious  papers  and  our  newspapers, 
for  example;  recall  how  in  the  last  dozen  or  fifteen 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  CROWD         219 

years  they  have  begun  to  trench  a  little  bit  on  each 
other's  ground.  I  can  remember,  since  I  have  been 
in  the  publishing  business,  when  the  religious  paper 
gave  very  little  attention  to  the  news  of  the  day; 
and  I  think  I  can  remember  the  time,  too,  when  we 
didn't  find  in  the  daily  papers  such  a  splendid, 
comprehensive,  fair  assortment  of  religious  news  as 
we  find  in  our  best  newspapers  to-day.  A  religious 
man  of  to-day  who  wants  to  keep  up  with  the  times 
must  read  the  daily  papers  in  order  to  get  the  news. 
And  how  is  it  with  our  magazines.'^  Fifteen  j^ears 
ago,  our  great  popular  magazines  were  confined 
almost  exclusively  to  scientific,  artistic,  and  literary 
topics  and  subjects;  rarely  did  they  deal  with  life 
itself.  How  has  it  been  during  the  last  ten  years  .'^ 
Why,  our  great  popular  magazines  have  led  the  way 
in  the  moral  awakening,  in  business  and  politics! 
Not  only  that,  but  one  of  the  New  York  magazines 
woke  up  recently  and  put  out  a  statement  some- 
thing like  this:  We  magazines  have  been  searching 
every  corner  of  the  world  to  find  things  of  interest 
to  give  to  our  people  to  read,  and  we  have  over- 
looked the  one  subject  that  is  of  chief  interest  to 
all  mankind;  namely.  Religion,  and  we  are  going 
to  take  it  up.  They  have  been  taking  it  up,  —  of 
course,  not  sectarian  religion,  but  religion  on  its 
broad  and  fundamental  bases.  Then  The  American 
Magazine  set  its  brilliant  young  editor,  Ray  Stan- 
nard  Baker,  at  work  writing  on  this  very  significant 
topic  —  Spiritual  Unrest. 

So  we  find  that  the  newspapers  and  the  maga- 


220  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

zines  reflect  the  changes  that  have  been  brought 
about  through  these  three  great  forces  that  have 
been  at  work  in  the  world  for  a  hundred  years;  and 
are  bringing  us  to  a  point  where  we  are  just  begin- 
ning to  find  out  that  although  we  may  not  discuss 
sectarian  religion,  nevertheless  that  does  not  mean 
that  all  religion,  all  moral  and  spiritual  truth,  needs 
to  be  excluded.  We  are  finding  that  there  is  a 
common  platform  of  moral  and  spiritual  truth  that 
all  broad-minded  and  right-hearted  people  can  get 
together  upon. 

Now,  before  proceeding  to  discuss  more  definitely 
the  Religion  of  the  Crowd,  it  might  be  well  for  us 
to  have  before  our  minds  some  definition  of  religion. 

I  heard  a  presentation  of  religion  in  Chicago  a 
few  weeks  ago  that  impressed  me  very  much,  given 
by  Rabbi  Hirsch.  He  said,  "Religion  is  the  appeal 
to  man  to  remember  that  he  is  made  in  the  image 
of  God."  Then  he  went  on  to  develop  that:  He 
said  men  must  have  moral  eflSciency  as  well  as 
technical  efficiency.  We  have  got  to  learn  that 
men  must  be  trained  as  men  no  less  than  as  artisans 
and  lawyers  and  what  not.  He  says  religion  teaches 
us  that  if  we  ought  to  do  a  thing,  we  can.  Now  I 
like  that  definition  of  religion  very  much;  religion 
is  the  appeal  to  man  to  remember  that  he  is  made 
in  the  image  of  God.  But  it  doesn't  quite  suit  me 
for  our  purpose  this  evening,  for  it  might  not 
include  our  agnostic  friends,  raising  the  question 
whether  there  is  or  is  not  a  God  as  we  look  at  it 
from  the  Christian  point  of  view.     So  I  would  put 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  CROWD        221 

it  this  way,  and  it  seems  to  me  in  putting  it  this 
way  I  do  not  lose  anything  for  those  who  beheve 
in  God,  and  I  open  the  door  for  every  honest 
agnostic  to  come  in  and  share  the  definition  with 
us:  reHgion  is  that  which  puts  a  man  in  tune  with 
the  universe.  Every  sane  man  wants  to  know  in 
what  direction  this  universe  is  going  and  go  along 
with  it,  and  no  sane  man  wants  to  go  against  the 
laws  of  the  universe;  and  so  my  definition  of 
religion  would  be  that  which  puts  a  man  in  tune 
with  the  universe. 

Now  just  a  word  as  to  the  definition  of  the  crowd, 
for  those  are  the  two  terms  in  our  topic  this  even- 
ing. The  crowd  is  simply  an  unrelated  company 
of  people;   that  is  all. 

Before  I  get  through,  I  shall  want  to  remind  you 
that  simply  because  you  have  a  crowd,  it  doesn't 
necessarily  follow  that  it  has  the  Religion  of 
the  Crowd.  I  shall  want  to  show  before  I  get 
through  that  you  cannot  have  any  religion  in  the 
crowd  unless  you  have  religion  in  the  hearts  of  the 
people  that  are  in  the  crowd. 

The  first  essential,  however,  in  developing  the 
Religion  of  the  Crowd,  according  to  my  idea,  is 
charity;  and  by  charity  I  do  not  mean  liberality. 
Liberality  is  a  very  much  abused  word,  especially 
here  in  New  England.  I  am  sure  all  of  us  have 
seen  most  extreme  exhibitions  of  illiberalism  on  the 
part  of  people  who  call  themselves  liberal.  Some 
people  seem  to  think  that  because  they  have  the 
notion  that  one  religion  is  as  good  as  another,  and 


222  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

because  they  care  little  for  any  of  them,  that  they 
are  very  liberal  in  religion.  Now  you  can't  be 
liberal  with  something  you  haven't  got.  You 
cannot  be  liberal  with  a  thing  when  you  haven't 
any  conviction  about  it.  And  again,  by  charity 
I  don 't  mean  toleration,  —  that  attitude  toward 
another  man's  ideas  which  says:  "Oh,  yes!  I  tol- 
erate you.  I  am  indifferent,  I  am  cold  about  it; 
but  I  will  tolerate  you."  I  mean  real  charity,  a 
loving,  generous  recognition  of  common  rights;  fair 
play,  and  forbearance  toward  those  with  whom  we 
disagree. 

Something  came  to  my  ear,  something  that  was 
said  in  the  hall  here  some  weeks  ago,  that  pleased 
me  very  much.  A  couple  of  Jewish  people  were 
discussing  what  manner  of  man  the  Chairman  of 
these  meetings  was,  and  they  finally  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  he  was  a  Jew.  When  I  heard  that, 
I  said :  "  That  is  the  finest  compliment  that  I  have 
ever  had.  If  I  have  so  conducted  myself  on  this 
platform,  if  I  have  been  so  sympathetic  toward  the 
other  man's  point  of  view  that  the  Jew  has  taken 
me  for  a  Jew,  and  the  Gentile  has  taken  me  for  a 
Gentile,  I  thank  God  for  it." 

Now,  in  developing  this  idea  of  the  Religion  of 
the  Crowd,  I  have  come  to  believe  that  every  man 
is  entitled  to  three  kinds  of  religion,  just  as  a 
man  may  love  his  home  and  his  city  and  his 
country  —  three  different  kinds  of  love  all  centering 
in  the  home.  (The  home  is  the  root  of  patriotism, 
and  if  a  man  doesn't  love  his  own  home,  he  cannot 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  CROWD        223 

be  much  of  a  patriot  either  to  his  city  or  his 
country.)  But  the  three  interests  are  entirely  dif- 
ferent from  each  other,  although  they  overlap.  So 
it  is  with  reference  to  these  three  kinds  of  religion. 
I  think  a  man  has,  first,  a  religion  of  his  own  heart, 
of  his  own  personal  life,  which  is  his  relation  to 
God,  or  to  the  universe,  and  to  his  fellow  man.  He 
is  different  from  everybody  else  in  the  peculiarities 
of  this  relationship.  It  is  his  own,  absolutely  his 
own,  and  he  cannot  share  it  altogether  with  any 
one  else.     That  is  the  first  religion. 

And  the  second  religion  is  when  a  man  moves 
out  and  finds  himself  in  association  with  other 
people  who  hold  similar  ideas,  and  thus  he  be- 
comes a  member  of,  and  has  fellowship  v/itli,  some 
church  or  sect,  or  denomination.  You  see  this  does 
not  interfere  at  all  with  his  own  personal  religious 
life,  which  is  his  own;  but  he  finds  on  certain 
things  he  is  in  harmony  with  other  people,  and  that 
constitutes  the  fellowship  of  his  sect  or  denomina- 
tion. 

Then  I  believe  he  can  move  out  beyond  that  and 
find  a  larger  fellowship  with  those  who  may  disagree 
with  him  still  more  widely,  but  nevertheless  agree 
on  certain  fundamentals.  Let  me  give  a  brief 
illustration  from  my  own  experience.  I  think  you 
have  all  found  out  by  this  time  that  I  am  a  Bap- 
tist. I  am  a  Baptist  not  only  by  training,  but  by 
choice.  You  know  some  people  are  Americans 
because  they  cannot  help  it;  they  were  born  that 
way.     Some    are    Americans    because    they    have 


224  DEINIOCRACY  IN  THE   MAKING 

coine  to  this  country  and  have  become  naturalized. 
But  I  am  a  Baptist  both  by  training  and  by  choice. 
I  say  choice  because,  when  seventeen  or  eighteen 
years  of  age,  I  experienced  a  great  intellectual 
revulsion  against  Christian  dogma,  —  I  suppose 
you  would  call  it  that,  —  and  for  four  years  I  was 
an  agnostic,  practically  speaking,  and  never  ex- 
pected in  God's  world  to  be  anything  else,  because 
it  seemed  to  me  that  to  be  anything  else  was  to 
believe  the  impossible.  But  I  want  to  tell  you  that 
when  I  came  out  of  agnosticism  to  a  restoration  of 
the  faith  of  my  childhood  and  my  youth,  I  came 
out  through  a  purely  intellectual  process  of  logic. 
It  was  not  a  matter  of  feeling  or  of  self-interest  with 
me  at  all;  it  was  a  matter  that  was  painfully  and 
laboriously  worked  out.  Then  I  plunged  into 
Christian  work;  and  I  found  myself  not  only  devel- 
oping a  heart-life  experience  entirely  my  own,  but 
very  soon,  through  my  connection  with  the  Chris- 
tian Endeavor  Societies,  I  found  myself  looking 
over  the  fence,  as  it  were,  of  my  own  denomination; 
and  pretty  soon  I  found  myself  shaking  hands  and 
having  delightful  fellowship  with  the  young  people 
of  forty  other  Protestant  denominations.  That  is 
one  of  the  things  that  Christian  Endeavor  has  done 
for  the  world:  bringing  the  young  people  of  forty 
different  Protestant  denominations  into  a  generous 
fellowship  together.  And  then,  when  I  went  over 
to  Cooper  Union,  I  found  there  were  other  fences 
that  I  could  look  over.  So  you  see  in  my  own 
experience  I  have  three  religions:   that  which  is  my 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  CROWD         225 

own,  peculiar  to  myself;  that  which  is  shared 
by  the  church  and  denomination  to  which  I 
belong;  and  that  which  we  all  share  here  this 
evening. 

Now  you  may  think  that,  practically  speaking, 
there  is  too  much  diversity  in  a  cosmopolitan 
crowd  to  get  any  unity  of  religion  out  of  ft  even  on 
the  broadest  and  most  fundamental  basis  that  you 
might  choose.  Here  you  are  mistaken.  Nature 
is  teaching  us  the  contrary  all  the  time.  I  had  a 
wonderful  lesson  in  that  line  just  three  days  ago 
when  a  friend  of  mine  invited  me,  with  a  few 
others,  to  look  at  something  that  he  loved  very 
much.  He  threw  on  to  a  screen,  by  means  of 
lantern  slides,  pictures  of  snowflakes,  hundreds  of 
them,  with  their  very  beautiful  figures  and  delicate 
tracery,  —  one  of  the  most  wonderful  and  beauti- 
ful sights  that  I  ever  saw.  And  he  revealed  a 
most  astounding  fact,  —  that,  so  far  as  man  knows, 
from  the  earliest  beginning  of  this  universe,  when 
snow  first  fell  to  the  earth,  there  never  have  been  in 
all  that  time  any  two  snowflakes  alike;  and  he 
showed  us  hundreds  of  them  on  the  screen,  and  we 
could  detect  no  two  alike.  Surely  that  is  diversity. 
You  would  hardly  expect  to  find  any  unity  in  that 
diversity,  but  the  most  miraculous  thing  is  that 
every  snowflake  is  built  on  the  principle  of  the 
hexagon.  You  can  trace  it  in  the  countless  parts  of 
the  snowflake;  with  all  that  elemental  diversity, 
there  is  that  unity.  Surely  we  need  not  be  dis- 
couraged then,   in  a  crowd  with  all  its  diversity, 


226  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

in  looking  for  certain  fundamental  religious  prin- 
ciples upon  which  we  can  all  unite. 

Another  thing  teaches  us  the  same  lesson.  We 
who  are  outside  of  a  denomination  or  sect  natu- 
rally look  upon  it  as  one  homogeneous  whole. 
That  is  the  greatest  mistake  in  the  world.  The 
Baptists  are  held  together  by  four  or  five  funda- 
mental principles,  such  as  the  separation  of  Church 
and  State,  a  regenerated  church  membership,  the 
Bible  as  the  only  rule  of  life  and  faith,  the  right 
of  individual  interpretation  of  the  Bible,  and  one 
or  two  other  things.  That  is  all  that  holds  us 
together.  We  have  no  central  organization  that 
can  legislate  for  the  individual  church.  Every 
church  is  absolutely  independent,  not  subject  to 
the  authority  of  any  one.  We  as  Baptists  dis- 
agree in  matters  of  conduct  and  in  matters  of  faith, 
that  are  more  or  less  important.  And  it  is  not 
only  so  with  Baptists,  but  with  other  denominations. 

You  will  find  a  very  different  attitude  toward 
the  use  of  tobacco  in  the  North  and  South  among 
the  same  sects.  With  the  use  of  beer  and  wine  on 
this  side  of  the  water  and  on  the  other,  there  is  a 
great  difference  in  practice  among  people  of  the 
same  church. 

In  the  matter  of  special  doctrines  dear  to  the 
hearts  of  the  people  who  hold  them,  excepting 
these  five  or  six  doctrines  upon  which  Baptists  are 
all  united,  I  find  great  differences  of  opinion  that 
seem  to  be  determined  a  good  deal  by  geographical 
location.     Denominations  are  held  together  by  cer- 


THE   RELIGION  OF  THE  CROWD         227 

tain  main  propositions,  yet  there  is  great  diversi- 
fication among  them. 

We  might  easily  become  discouraged,  however,  in 
view  of  the  diversity  of  the  crowd,  in  our  effort 
to  bring  out  this  unity  even  when  we  know  it 
exists.  It  seems  to  me  that  one  of  the  best  ways 
to  bring  out  the  unity  of  the  crowd  is  to  apply  that 
magnificent  test  which  Jesus  gave  us,  and  which  I 
think  the  churches  have  partially  forgotten.  He 
said,  "By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them."  Now 
we  are  too  often  in  the  habit,  in  the  churches,  of 
substituting  for  that,  "By  their  opinions  ye  shall 
know  them."  I  think  it  was  Doctor  Hall,  of 
Union  Theological  Seminary,  who,  lecturing  in 
Symphony  Hall  two  or  three  weeks  ago,  said  that 
there  were  really  only  two  divisions  of  men,  — 
men  of  good  will  and  men  not  of  good  will.  I  am 
sure,  if  we  take  that  test  of  Jesus,  "By  their 
fruits  ye  shall  know  them,"  we  shall  find  things 
very  much  simplified.  I  am  sure  you  have  all 
had  the  experience  that  I  have  had,  —  you  have 
known  men  who  were  agnostics,  and  possibly 
called  themselves  atheists,  who  lived  sweeter  and 
m.ore  adm.irable  lives  than  some  people  you  know 
who  call  themselves  strictly  orthodox.  Now  if  we 
take  Jesus'  test,  "By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know 
them,"  we  won't  mistake  and  put  wrong  labels 
on  people. 

It  may  be  helpful  to  pass  now  from  the  abstract 
to  the  concrete  and  pick  out  a  man  whom  we  all 
know  who  represents  magnificently  in  his  life  and 


228  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

record  and  career,  to  my  mind,  the  Religion  of 
the  Crowd.  I  find  that  such  a  man  was  Abraham 
Lincoln.  A  minister  recently  said  that,  though 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  not  a  church  member,  he 
filled  Doctor  Charles  W.  Eliot's  definition  of 
religion  most  admirably.  Doctor  Eliot's  defini- 
tion is  "To  do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy,  and  to 
walk  humbly  with  thy  God."  When  you  analyze 
that,  you  will  find  it  includes  the  moral  and 
spiritual  truths  that  we  love  to  talk  about  here 
in  this  hall.  "To  do  justly"  is  to  live  a  moral 
life;  "to  love  mercy,"  according  to  my  mind,  is 
to  live  a  spiritual  life;  and  "to  walk  humbly 
with  thy  God"  is  to  revere  and  to  cherish  human- 
ity in  all  things.  A  man  recently  analyzed  most 
admirably  Lincoln's  character  in  four  simple  sen- 
tences. He  said,  "He  never  boasted,  he  never 
pretended,  he  was  not  a  self-justifier,  and  charity 
was  a  part  of  his  nature."  Surely,  that  is  a 
beautiful  analysis  of  the  character  of  perhaps  our 
noblest  American. 

I  think  we  ought  to  have  other  centers  than 
Cooper  Union  and  Ford  Hall  to  develop  and  prac- 
tise the  Religion  of  the  Crowd.  I  have  been  very 
much  interested  in  watching  the  things  that  seem 
to  have  interested  this  company  of  people  most  in 
the  different  lectures  that  we  have  had  here,  and  — 
do  you  know?  —  it  has  been  perfectly  clear  that 
when  we  have  had  the  most  truly,  fundamentally, 
and  deeply  religious  topic  under  discussion  here, 
that  has  been  the  meeting  that  has  gripped  us  the 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  CROWD        229 

most;  and  when  we  have  had  a  topic  that  bordered 
most  on  a  purely  bread-and-butter  question,  that 
was  the  time  when  we  showed  the  least  interest. 
Do  you  remember  the  time  that  Professor  William 
Salter  was  here  and  gave  us  "Tolstoi's  'Story  of  a 
Soul's  Resurrection'"?  I  never  was  in  a  more 
religious  meeting  in  my  life.  Although  we  dis- 
pensed entirely  with  theological  language  and 
technical  terms,  we  were  that  night  all  together, 
with  one  accord,  with  great  delight  and  interest, 
discussing  the  fundamental  laws  of  the  human 
soul  with  Professor  Salter. 

There  is  a  phase  of  this  topic  that  might  well 
have  an  evening  given  to  it.  Our  magazines  have 
taken  it  up,  and  Cooper  Union  has  found  it  out, 
and  Ford  Hall  has  dealt  with  it.  Why  can't  we 
have  something  of  the  same  sort  in  our  public 
schools?  I  will  be  second  to  no  man  in  paying 
respect  and  honor  to  our  public  schools  (all  the 
formal  education  I  have  came  to  me  in  our  public 
schools);  but  I  think  there  is  an  element  lacking 
there  that  ought  to  be  supplied.  And  the  reason 
it  is  lacking  is  because  we  have  never  waked  up 
to  the  lack.  Because  we  do  not  want  sectarian 
religion  in  the  school,  therefore  we  think  we  cannot 
discuss  moral  and  spiritual  truth.  I  believe  that  is 
a  great  mistake.  I  am  not  enough  of  a  pedagogue 
to  suggest  methods,  but  I  can  see  what  ought  to 
be  done  and  see  that  it  is  quite  possible  to  do  it. 

Jane  Addams  says  that  some  high  school  boys 
came  to  her  and  said  of  their  teacher,  "He  is  all 


230  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

right  on  the  lessons  —  he  keeps  hammering  on  the 
lessons  all  the  time,  but  we  cannot  get  anything 
out  of  him  about  life."  And  Miss  Addams  asked 
them  what  they  meant.  "Why,"  they  said,  "he 
never  talks  to  us  about  what  we  are  going  to  do 
in  the  world."  Now  those  boys  were  just  hunger- 
ing for  a  discussion  of  moral  and  spiritual  truths 
that  the  teacher  was  not  giving  them,  and  I  think 
we  find  there  is  that  lack  in  the  curriculum  of  the 
schools  and  that  it  could  be  supplied  without 
interfering  with  anybody's  special  religion. 

We  are  indebted,  as  you  all  know,  to  one  of  the 
noblest  men  that  this  city  has  ever  produced, — 
Daniel  Sharp  Ford,  whose  picture  hangs  on  this 
wall,  —  not  only  for  this  beautiful  hall  in  which  we 
meet,  but  also  for  the  funds  that  make  these  meet- 
ings possible.  Naturally,  I  have  been  very  much 
interested  to  know  for  certain  whether  the  work 
that  we  are  doing  here  is  the  sort  of  work  that 
would  appeal  to  him  if  he  were  living  to-day.  A 
man  who  worked  daily  with  him  for  fifteen  years, 
once  came  to  me  to  congratulate  us  on  the  work 
that  we  are  doing  here,  and  said,  "Do  you  know 
what  Mr.  Ford  said  to  me  one  day.?  He  said,  'I 
am  helping  to  provide  the  funds  for  the  running 
of  four  Baptist  churches  in  this  city  (this  was  a 
good  many  years  ago),  and  I  believe  in  that  work 
with  all  my  heart,  but  do  you  know  what  I  would 
like  to  do,  too,  and  what  I  want  to  do  some  day? 
I  should  like  to  take  a  building  in  a  congested 
district  and  give  it  over  entirely  to  the  use  of  the 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  CROWD        231 

people  for  their  ministration  during  the  week,  and 
have  meetings  on  Sunday  that  would  appeal  to  all.' 
He  said,  'I  don't  think  I  would  call  it  a  church. 
I  don't  know  that  I  would  have  a  minister  settled 
over  it.  But  that  is  the  kind  of  work  that  I  should 
like  to  do.'  "  And  this  friend  said  he  was  so  glad, 
knowing  that  this  was  in  Mr.  Ford's  heart,  that 
we  have  started  a  work  like  this  we  are  doing 
to-night. 

Now  you  have  heard  about  the  great  work  Mr. 
Ford  did  with  The  Youtlis  Companion.  Here  is 
what  The  Youth's  Companion  was  before  Mr.  Ford 
took  it,  —  a  little,  four-page,  evangelical,  religious 
paper  for  children.  This  copy  of  The  Youth's  Com- 
panion that  I  hold  before  you  is  eighty-two  years 
of  age.  My  associate  and  beloved  leader,^  Doctor 
Francis  E.  Clark,  in  going  over  some  old  things 
that  his  mother  had  left  among  her  belongings, 
found  this  copy  of  The  Youth's  Companion,  pub- 
lished in  1827.  When  Mr.  Ford  took  this  paper,  it 
had  a  circulation  of  five  thousand  copies,  and  when 
he  died,  he  left  a  paper  with  more  than  five  hun- 
dred thousand  circulation.  Here  is  The  Youth's 
Companion  of  this  week,  —  a  very  different  sort 
of  paper.  Now  the  very  significant  point  that  I 
want  to  call  to  your  attention  is  this:  that  Mr. 
Ford,  a  deeply  religious  man,  a  Christian,  a  Baptist, 
a  man  who  remained  a  Christian  and  a  Baptist  to 
the  last  day,  who  devoted  his  money  and  his  time 
and  strength  and  his  work  to  propagating  the  in- 
terests of  Christianity  and  of  the  Baptist  denom- 


232  DEIMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

ination;  —  this  man  took  this  little  Sunday-school 
sheet,  which  was  a  strictly  religious  paper  (I 
should  say,  from  the  reading  of  it,  a  dyed-in-the- 
wool  religious  paper),  and  what  did  he  make  of  it? 
He  made  of  it  a  paper  that  embodied,  according 
to  my  mind,  most  remarkably  this  idea  of  the 
Religion  of  the  Crowd;  for  there  has  been  excluded 
from  it,  in  all  the  years  since  Mr.  Ford  developed 
it  to  what  it  is  now,  everything  in  the  least  sec- 
tarian and  anything  that  would  give  offense  to 
any  man's  religion.  And  yet,  notwithstanding  the 
large  sums  of  money  which  Mr.  Ford  gave  away 
while  he  lived;  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  he 
made  a  record,  that  has  been  excelled  by  no  other 
man  I  know  of,  in  leaving  more  than  nine-tenths 
of  his  property  for  religious  and  philanthrophic 
work  and  less  than  one- tenth  to  his  daughter; 
notwithstanding  he  was  such  a  noble  and  generous 
giver;  —  everybody  who  knows  The  Youth'' s  Com- 
panion and  his  work  on  it  will  say  that  the  greatest 
thing  he  did  with  his  life  was  the  making  of  The 
Youth's  Companion  itself,  through  which  he  de- 
veloped the  characters  of  American  youths  for  two 
generations.  Now  Mr.  Ford  was  loyal  all  his  life 
to  a  Baptist  paper  that  he  once  published  in  con- 
nection with  The  Youth's  Companion;  but  I  think 
he  saw  perfectly  clearly  that  whereas  there  is  a 
place  for  the  religious  paper  that  no  other  paper 
can  supply,  there  is  also  a  place  for  a  paper  like 
The  Youth's  Companion  that  represents  the  Reli- 
gion of  the  Crowd,  that  presents  moral  and  spiri- 


THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  CROWD        233 

tual  truth  such  as  all  men  and  women  and  children 
can  enjoy. 

Just  a  third  testimony  with  reference  to  what 
might  be  Mr.  Ford's  attitude  toward  this  work  if 
he  were  living  to-day.  I  have  a  letter  here  that 
I  want  to  read  you.  It  came  to  me  from  the  man 
who  was  Mr.  Ford's  pastor  at  the  Ruggles  Street 
Baptist  Church  for  fourteen  years,  —  Doctor  Robert 
G.  Seymour.  This  is  what  he  wrote  me  just  a 
few  weeks  ago: 

"I  have  been  greatly  interested  in  hearing  and  reading  about  the 
really  great  meetings  which  have  been  held  in  Ford  Hall  under  your 
inspired  leadership.  I  send  to  you  my  most  hearty  congratulations 
and  commendation.  I  was  the  pastor  of  Mr.  Daniel  S.  Ford  for  four- 
teen years,  and  was  in  closest  relationship  with  him  in  his  work  of 
benevolence;  I  knew  his  mind  and  heart.  While  he  was  a  Baptist, 
and  worked  in  closest  sympathy  with  his  denomination,  he  had  the 
broadest  sympathies  with  those  of  any  faith  who  were  trying  to  better 
humanity.  He  had  an  intense  longing  to  reach  those  who  did  not 
come  into  sympathy  with  the  Christian  church.  One  object  he  had 
for  making  a  home  for  the  Social  Union  was  that  there  might  be  a 
place  where  our  best  and  most  thoughtful  laymen  might  meet  men  as 
men,  irrespective  of  church  relations,  and  show  them  Christianity  in 
practical  everyday  life.  I  think  your  work  is  carrying  out  his  idea, 
and  it  has  my  most  hearty  benediction." 

Every  religion  that  is  religion  at  all,  has  a  per- 
sonal application.  The  Religion  of  the  Crowd  has 
a  personal  application.  As  I  stated  in  the  begin- 
ning, I  don't  believe  you  can  have  the  Religion  of 
the  Crowd  unless  you  have  religion  in  the  hearts 
of  some  of  the  people  in  the  crowd.  That  is  a 
necessity. 

But  instead   of  making  any   application   of   my 


234  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

own,  I  want  to  make  an  application  that  I  found 
in  one  of  our  own  daily  papers,  written  by  a  news- 
paper man  who  happens  to  be  in  this  audience 
to-night,  and  with  his  words  I  will  close.  This 
is  his  application,  —  a  personal  application  to  each 
one  of  us  of  the  Religion  of  the  Crowd.  He  says: 
"Practically,  revival  or  no  revival,  every  man 
sooner  or  later  has  to  decide  whether  he  will  seek 
to  have  his  own  way  in  the  world,  riding  over 
every  one  else,  or  whether  he  will  wheel  his  wishes 
and  desires  into  line  with  the  great  moral  forces 
of  the  universe." 

This  is  precisely  the  personal  application  of  the 
Religion  of  the  Crowd.  It  is  something  that  we 
all  need  to  think  about.  May  God  give  us,  each 
one,  grace  to  face  it  and  to  settle  it  right.  . 

i 


CHAPTER  II 
THE   MENACE   OF   SOCIALISM 

An  Address  Delivered  at  the  Ford  Hall 
Meeting,  February  5,  1911 

By  Reverend  Thomas  I.  Gasson,  S.J.,  President 
of  Boston  College 

IT  is  indeed  a  pleasure  to  come  before  a  body 
of  men  and  women  who  are  interested  in 
what  is  one  of  the  most  vital  questions  of 
the  day. 

The  subject  upon  which  I  have  been  asked  to 
speak  and  the  side  I  shall  try  to  maintain  is,  of 
course,  one  of  great  interest  to  the  world  at  large 
at  the  present  time.  We  are  all  interested  in  the 
welfare  of  our  fellow-beings.  We  all  feel  that  there 
is  something  wrong  in  society  at  the  present  time. 

There  are  colossal  fortunes  and  there  are 
depths  of  poverty.  There  are  those  who  know 
not  what  to  do  with  their  wealth,  and  those  who 
have  to  cry  out  for  a  mere  pittance  only  to  keep 
body  and  soul  together. 

Consequently,  when  Socialism  comes  to  us  and 
states  that  its  great  aim  is  to  benefit  humanity, 
to  lessen  poverty,  to  make  life  brighter  and  more 


236  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

full  of  sunshine,  we  must  every  one  of  us  say 
that  with  this  aim  and  object  we  are  in  hearty 
accord. 

Therefore  I  would  not  have  any  one  understand 
for  a  moment  that  because  I  want  to  speak  of 
the  dangers  of  Socialism  that  I  am  not  deeply 
interested  in  the  welfare  of  humanity.  My  whole 
life  has  been  spent  for  others. 

I  belong  to  one  of  the  religious  orders  of  the 
church,  and  we  receive  nothing  for  our  services. 
Therefore  I  am  in  hearty  sympathy  with  that  aim 
of  Socialism.  Socialism  is  rather  a  shifting  name. 
It  may  be  that  the  Socialism  that  some  of  you 
follow  is  not  the  Socialism  the  dangers  of  which 
I  am  speaking  about. 

I  beg  all  to  understand  that  when  I  speak  of 
the  dangers  of  Socialism  I  am  speaking  of  what 
occurs  to  me  and  others  as  the  positive  dangers 
of  a  specified  form  known  as  Socialism.  The  So- 
cialism of  which  I  speak  is  that  economic,  social 
theory  which  wishes  to  place  the  ownership,  pro- 
duction and  distribution  of  all  goods  in  the  hands 
of  one  body,  the  State.  The  great  authors  of  the 
system  of  Socialism  of  which  I  speak  are  Karl 
Marx,  Engels,  and  others. 

There  is  need  of  reform  at  the  present  time, 
but  this  reform  should  come  through  legitimate 
channels  and  not  in  ways  which  would  overturn 
society. 

Socialism,  as  propounded  by  certain  of  its 
teachers,  contains  principles  which  are  subversive 


THE  MENACE  OF  SOCIALISM  ^37 

to  personal   integrity,   domestic  integrity   and   na- 
tional integrity. 

Even  suppose  these  dangers  did  not  exist. 
Socialism  would  be  an  impracticable  system  for 
our  everyday  interests.  The  life  and  the  vigor  of 
the  nation  depend,  in  its  ultimate  analysis,  upon 
the  vigor  and  the  integrity  of  the  individual. 
If  the  men  and  women  of  the  nation  are  all  right, 
if  they  are  just,  if  they  possess  all  that  range  of 
virtues  which  goes  to  make  up  personal  integrity, 
the  nation  will  be  strong  and  will  endure. 

Personal  integrity  depends  upon  two  things, 
namely,  the  view  of  life  and  the  laws  of  morality. 
If  we  propound  the  view  that  there  is  nothing  in 
life  except  what  is  material,  if  a  man  is  nothing 
but  a  combination  of  chemical  atoms,  if  back  of 
this  body  I  see  there  is  no  undying  spirit,  what  is 
the  view  of  life.'^  If  there  is  nothing  but  matter, 
then  the  battle  must  be  beween  matter  and  matter, 
and  might  must  be  the  victor. 

If  beyond  this  life  there  is  no  future  life,  if 
there  is  no  settling  up,  no  bringing  to  the  bar  of 
inflexible  justice,  then  why  should  a  man  repent 
of  crime? 

I  say,  since  personal  integrity  depends  upon  the 
entire  view,  and  that  view  must  always  be  that 
there  is  something  in  man  which  is  not  material, 
that  back  of  what  we  see  with  our  eyes  there  is 
an  undying  spirit,  and  that  the  dignity  of  man 
depends  upon  the  growth  of  that  spirit  and  the 
power  and  influence  of  that  spirit,  and  that  the 


238  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

dignity  of  man  rests  entirely  upon  the  supremacy 
of  that  spirit,  and  where  the  dignity  is  supreme 
and  covers  the  body,  I  say,  where  the  spirit  is  keen 
and  holds  the  body  in  check,  then  we  have  per- 
sonal integrity. 

Now,  if  we  take  the  writings  of  the  Socialists 
of  whom  I  speak,  we  shall  find  that  they  do  teach 
this  doctrine,  which,  as  I  have  said,  is  subversive 
of  personal  integrity.  The  theory  as  advocated  by 
Engels  and  others  seems  to  be:  "Every  form  of 
being  is  material.  Motion  is  the  mode  of  being  of 
matter.  Beyond  life  there  is  nothing  and  in  life 
there  is  nothing  except  matter." 

While  that  seems  a  simple  sentence,  you  can 
see  how  from  that  germ-thought  there  can  spring 
the  whole  forming  of  a  man's  character,  and,  there- 
fore, I  say  the  first  great  danger  we  detect  in  the 
Socialistic  theories,  as  propounded  by  certain 
authors,  is  the  danger  to  personal  integrity. 

Now,  the  second  danger  which  I  would  detect 
in  Socialism  comes  from  the  danger  to  the  family. 
The  strength  of  a  nation  lies  first  of  all  in  the  in- 
tegrity of  its  citizens;  but  it  lies  also,  and  almost 
in  greater  measure,  in  the  integrity  of  the  family, 
in  domestic  integrity. 

Unless  family  life  in  the  nation  is  safeguarded, 
unless  the  bond  of  marriage  is  regarded  as  sacred, 
unless  child  life  is  respected,  and  unless  citizens 
regard  as  the  greatest  treasure  of  the  nation  the 
child,  and  consider  it  as  the  most  important  obliga- 
tion of  a  nation  to  take  that  child  and  train  that 


THE  MENACE  OF  SOCIALISM  239 

character,  the  nation  will  inevitably  go  to  pieces. 
The  nations  all  safeguard  the  family;  woman  must 
be  safeguarded  and  the  child  must  be  safeguarded. 

Now,  if  we  take  the  teachings  of  many  of  the 
Socialists,  what  do  we  find  in  regard  to  the  mar- 
riage bond.?  We  find  that  many  of  them  advocate 
more  or  less  temporary  relations  between  men  and 
women  —  a  sort  of  legalized  free  love. 

Consequently,  a  theory  which  would  advocate 
such  a  change  in  society  as  would  be  brought 
about  by  temporary  relations,  or  free  love,  would 
constitute  a  grave  danger  to  the  republic.  What 
would  become  of  the  child  under  these  conditions.? 
You  may  say  that  the  child  would  be  taken  over 
by  the  State,  but  the  naturally  constituted  trainers 
of  the  child  are  the  parents. 

Therefore  the  second  danger  comes  from  the 
fact  that  according  to  the  teaching  of  many  So- 
cialists, family  life  would  be  disrupted  and  that 
family  care  would  be  denied  the  child  —  and  that 
is  a  danger  to  the  nation's  life.  If  we  are  to  ac- 
cept the  materiaHstic  evolution  of  Socialism,  then 
the  great  familiar  law  of  justice  is  lost,  and  where 
you  lose  justice,  where  justice  fades  out  of  a  na- 
tion's life,  there  you  make  the  grave  of  that  nation. 

The  teaching  of  many  of  the  leaders  of  social- 
istic programs  that,  except  in  mathematics,  all 
laws  are  changeable,  is  dangerous  to  the  nation. 

Socialism  practicable?  If  every  man  and  woman 
were  perfectly  made,  and  every  man  and  woman  of 
the  highest  character   and  determined   to   live  for 


240  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

others,  then  we  might  possibly  come  to  a  social- 
istic world.  But  we  have  got  to  take  them  as  they 
are;  and  you  cannot  change  people's  dispositions 
by  making  laws. 

Socialists  are  fond  of  talking  of  the  equality 
of  all  men.  This  is  a  beautiful  phrase  and  in 
many  senses  true.  We  are  all  equal  before  the  law 
and  in  the  sight  of  the  Almighty,  but  are  we  all 
equal  in  regard  to  strength  of  body  or  of  mind-f^ 
Do  we  all  have  the  same  attractive  manner  or 
possess  agility.'^ 

I  am  not  saying  that  the  present  evils  should 
not  be  held  down  by  legislation,  but  I  am  saying 
that  as  long  as  men  and  women  are  constituted  as 
they  are,  there  must  be  evils.  Then  again,  remem- 
ber that,  if  we  were  now  to  banish  all  private 
ownership,  so  that  men  and  women  worked  for 
a  common  State,  you  would  take  away  the  great 
incentive  of  human  energy  because  of  the  fact 
that  by  our  energy  we  become  owners  of  this 
or  that  property. 

So,  even  supposing  there  were  no  dangers,  it 
would  be  impractical  to  carry  out  the  theories  of 
Socialism. 

The  Questions 

Q.  If  orphanage  asylums  provide  the  proper 
care  and  love  for  the  child,  why  could  not  the 
State  do  it? 

A.  If  the  objector  were  familiar  with  the 
ordinary  police  courts  and  knew  their  method    of 


THE  MENACE  OP  SOCIALISM  Ml 

handling  children,  I  hardly  think  he  would  feel 
like  trusting  his  own  to  State  officers. 

Q.  Do  not  careful  Socialists  to-day  deny  the 
principles  which  the  speaker  has  justly  denounced? 

A.  The  Socialists  I  was  speaking  of  are  the 
Socialists  who  propounded  these  principles. 

Q.  Why  cannot  Catholics  and  Protestants  alike 
unite  on  a  common  subject,  as  for  instance,  tem- 
perance? 

A.  I  think  we  are  united,  as  the  Chairman  said, 
we  met  on  a  common  platform  in  our  efifort  to 
improve  the  South  End. 

Q.  Has  the  speaker  ever  seen  or  heard  of  any 
Socialistic  program  which  meant  to  alter  or  change 
marriage  customs? 

A.  I  was  intending  to  read  citations  from  several 
Socialistic  authors,  but  unfortunately  my  eyesight 
is  bad.  (Father  Gasson  had  the  works  of  several 
Socialistic  authors  on  the  desk.) 

Q.  Since  the  Socialistic  movement  has  accom- 
plished so  much  for  the  working  class  in  Germany, 
why  should  Socialism  be  considered  a  danger  to 
those  whom  it  seeks  to  benefit? 

A.  I  rather  anticipated  that  question  when  I 
said  that  all  were  interested  in  the  great  aims  and 
the  object  of  Socialism.  I  tried  to  dwell  with  some 
force  on  not  allowing  labor  to  be  treated  as  a  bale 
of  merchandise.  In  the  early  part  of  the  reign  of 
Pope  Leo  XIII,  he  said  that  no  capitalist  should 
fail  to  give  to  labor  a  wage  which  would  enable 
the  toiler  to  live  in  decent  circumstances.     It  is  a 


242  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

matter  of  lilstory  that  the  clergy,  as  a  rule,  have 
championed  the  cause  of  labor. 

Q.  Will  the  speaker  give  an  explanation  or 
definition  of  free  love? 

A.  Any  system  which  would  advocate  trans- 
ferring from  one  woman  to  another  that  love  which 
a  man  gives  to  one  and  which  she  claims  is  that 
love  which  would  enable  him  to  make  her  his 
wife. 

Q.  What  reason  have  you  to  believe  that  So- 
cialism would  bring  more  hardship  to  family  life 
than  the  present  economic  pressure.'^ 

A.  Because  the  principles  of  Socialism,  if  car- 
ried out,  would  result  in  tyranny  more  severe  than 
anything  from  which  we  suffer  at  present.  I  don't 
think  we  have  any  right  to  attribute  to  economic 
pressure  all  the  evils  under  which  we  labor.  In 
New  York  thirty-seven  cents  a  head  a  day  is 
spent  in  one  community  for  liquor,  and  that  money 
would  do  much  to  abolish  some  evils. 

Q.  How  is  it  that  France,  for  generations  a 
Catholic  country,  had  a  death  rate  higher  than  the 
birth  rate,  while  now  as  an  infidel  country  its  birth 
rate  is  higher  than  the  death  rate? 

A.  There  are  very  few  parts  of  France  where 
that  holds  good,  I  believe,  because  in  a  recent 
article  written  on  "The  Peaceful  Conquest  of 
France  by  Germany",  it  showed  that  owing  to 
the  low  birth  rate  in  France,  Germans  were  march- 
ing quietly  in  and  settling  there.  The  teachings 
of  the  Catholic  Church,  carried  out,  would  abolish 


THE  MENACE  OF  SOCIALISM  243 

race  suicide.  Her  teaching  is  that  no  man  can, 
even  in  thought,  contemplate  wrecking  or  destroy- 
ing the  life  of  an  unborn  child  without  endangering 
his  soul. 

Q.  Why  do  seven-eighths  of  the  other  churches 
believe  that  Socialism  is  Christianity? 

A.  I  don't  think  they  do  consider  it  in  that 
light.  The  only  true  Socialists,  anyway,  are  mem- 
bers of  religious  orders  of  the  Catholic  church. 

Q.  How  is  it  that  those  who  have  been  ex- 
ponents of  the  materialistic  theory  so  often 
outshine  in  virtues  those  who  hold  to  the  other 
theory  .f^ 

A.  I  do  not  think  that  is  true.  I  think  that  if 
you  will  take  the  lives  of  men  and  compare  them, 
you  will  find  far  stronger  virtues  among  those  who 
adopt  the  spiritualistic  theory. 

Q.  Are  not  the  present  conditions  as  bad  as 
those  the  speaker  fears  would  prevail  under 
Socialism? 

A.  I  said  in  my  words  at  the  start  that  there 
is  something  wrong  with  the  present  conditions. 
I  said  also  that  a  man  was  bound  to  get  a  fair 
wage,  but  I  believe  that  much  can  be  brought 
about  by  legislation. 

Q.  If  a  worker  believes  that  equality  will  come 
with  Socialism,  why  should  not  a  worker  become 
a  Socialist? 

A.  Because  we  have  got  to  go  by  principles. 
If  Socialism  advocates  principles  subversive  to 
society,  we  should  not  follow  its  principles. 


244  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

Q.  Is  your  attitude  your  own  or  that  of  your 
church? 

A.  Both.  I  am  bound  by  a  pledge  of  obedi- 
ence, but  it  reads  "in  all  things,  except  what  is 
sin."  I  would  not  stand  for  anything  that  is  not 
right. 

Q.  Did  Marx  or  Engels  ever  write  or  speak  of 
the  home  as  pictured  by  the  speaker? 

A.  Not  exactly  as  pictured,  but  if  their  prin- 
ciples were  carried  out  they  would  lead  to  the 
picture  I  have  drawn. 

Q.  If  the  sale  of  liquor  were  stopped,  would 
the  trusts  not  still  control  all  the  necessities  of 
life? 

A.  I  believe  that  if  the  liquor  evil  were  wiped 
out,  a  great  part  of  the  difficulties  would  be  solved. 

Q.  When  a  movement  carries  ten  million  votes 
is  it  not  unfair  to  take  the  view  of  an  ex-Social- 
ist? 

A.  I  did  not  draw  all  my  inspiration  from 
Goldstein.  I  got  the  most  of  it  from  Karl  Marx, 
the  leader  of  the  Socialists. 

Q.  Isn't  it  true  that  the  Socialist  party  Is  the 
only  one  that  wants  to  give  the  working  man  a 
home? 

A.  There  are  a  great  many  societies  organized 
to  enable  the  working  men  to  own  their  own  homes. 

Q.  Haven't  the  same  charges  been  made  against 
the  great  reformers  such  as  Martin  Luther? 

A.  It  is  true  they  were  maligned,  but  what  I 
am  trying  to  bring  out  is  that  the  teachings  of 


THE  MENACE  OF  SOCL\LISM  245 

Socialism  would  bring  about  the  downfall  of  the 
nation. 

Q.  As  the  Republicans  and  Democrats  have 
been  legislating  for  years  and  have  done  nothing 
for  the  working  man,  why  not  try  the  Socialists? 

A.  Socialism  is  not  only  politics.  It  comes 
into  the  domain  of  morality,  and  when  you  reach 
the  question  of  morality,  you  are  in  the  province 
of  the  Catholic  Church. 

Q.  Why  is  it  that  the  most  ignorant  people  in 
the  world,  the  Russians,  are  the  most  religious.'^ 

A.     I  don't  think  they  are. 

Q.  What  incentive  do  capitalists  ofiFer  the  work- 
ing man? 

A.  They  do  not  offer  many,  but  there  is  the 
incentive  of  seeing  your  work  well  done. 

0.  Are  not  Catholic  countries,  such  as  Spain, 
Portugal,  and  Mexico,  backward  in  civilization, 
containing  many  illiterates? 

A.  There  are  parts  of  Kentucky  in  which  the 
inhabitants  display  greater  illiteracy  than  in  any 
part  of  the  world. 

Q.  Don't  you  believe  that  any  incentive  other 
than  material  gain  could  be  supplied  to  those  not 
in  religious  orders? 

A.  I  don't  believe  that  you  can  get  the  major- 
ity of  the  people  to  work  for  that  incentive. 

Q.  If  Socialism  is  against  capitalism,  and  cap- 
italism is  money  and  money  is  the  root  of  all  evil, 
why  is  the  Catholic  church  against  Socialism? 

A.    Because  she  wishes  to  safeguard  humanity. 


246  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

Q.  Is  it  legitimate  to  suppose  that  behind  the 
reverend  gentleman's  speech  is  the  spirit  of  economy 
for  the  property  of  the  Catholic  church? 

A.  The  church  never  considers  property  or 
wealth  when  the  question  of  a  home,  a  woman,  or 
a  child  is  before  it.  It  stands,  as  it  always  has 
stood,  by  the  cradle,  by  the  wife,  and  by  the 
grave. 

Q.  Is  not  free  love  existing  at  the  present  time 
in  our  heiresses  selling  themselves  to  nobility? 

A.  There  are  certainly  many  American  women 
who  don't  sell  themselves.  It  is  the  abuse  of  mod- 
ern society  which  leads  to  these  things. 

Q.  Can  the  speaker  point  out  one  place  in  Karl 
Marx's  Das  Capital  in  which  he  advocates  free  love 
and  the  bringing  up  of  the  child  by  the  State? 

A.  By  following  out  his  teachings  both  these 
things  would  come  to  pass, 

Q.  Should  not  a  Catholic  priest,  speaking  of 
Socialism,  differentiate  between  the  different  brands? 

A.  I  think  it  would  be  helpful  to  all  of  us  if 
there  was  a  general  clearing  up  of  the  term  which 
goes  with  the  principles  I  have  indicated. 

Q.  If  I  should  come  to  you  in  confession  next 
month  and  tell  you  that  I  was  a  Socialist,  would 
you  refuse  me  absolution? 

A.  I  should  require  an  investigation  into  the 
special  brand  of  Socialism  you  favor. 

Q.  Would  the  Catholic  church  object  to  one  of 
its  clergymen  becoming  a  Socialist? 

A.     I  am  inclined  to  think  it  would. 


THE  MENACE  OF  SOCIALISM  247 

Q.  If  the  government  sold  liquor  at  cost,  would 
that  not  do  away  with  it  in  the  end? 

A.  I  believe  it  would  in  great  measure  reduce 
the  evil. 

Q  What  particular  kind  of  Socialism  does  the 
speaker  agree  with? 

A.  I  was  never  accused  of  being  a  Socialist 
before.  I'm  afraid  I  don't  belong  to  any  of  the 
brands. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE    MODERN   DRAMA   AS   A   SOCIAL   FORCE 

An  Address  Delivered  at  the  Ford  Hall 
Meeting,  December  7,  1913 

By  Norman  Hapgood 

ACROSS  the  ocean  they  have  a  real  censor, 
and  it  is  not  necessary  to  depend  upon 
the  mayor  or  the  pohce  to  tell  us  if  it  is 
right  for  the  more  enlightened  members  of  the 
community  to  see  a  play  like  Damaged  Goods.  In 
England  the  censor  is  a  man  who  never  goes  to  the 
theater,  but  to  whom  all  plays  must  be  sent  before 
they  can  be  produced.  Miss  Angela  Morgan  in 
her  poem  has  compared  Mr.  Richard  Bennett  to 
John  the  Baptist,  because  Mr.  Bennett  has  had 
the  courage  to  give  Damaged  Goods.  In  England 
John  the  Baptist  can't  appear  on  the  stage  —  ex- 
cept in  a  dress-suit,  singing  in  an  oratorio.  But 
even  in  England  there  is  a  growing  sentiment  in 
favor  of  a  drama  free  to  express  itself  as  a  social 
force. 

In  talking  about  the  drama  as  a  social  force, 
I  don't  want  to  narrow  it  to  the  one  moral  ques- 
tion which  is  agitating  this  city  to-day.     The  drama 


MODERN  DRAMA  AS  A  SOCIAL  FORCE     249 

is  the  greatest  general  social  agent  of  any  of  the 
arts.  It  is  the  one  art  which  in  a  short  space  of 
time  is  capable  of  expressing  the  highest  flights 
of  the  human  imagination  and  bringing  all  kinds 
of  people  together,  just  as  religion  does.  I  was 
startled  at  first  by  Mr.  Coleman's  prayer  (a  prayer 
for  those  of  the  theater)  but  then  I  remembered 
that  the  drama  started  in  religion  and  that  even 
to-day  it  finds  its  highest  expression  at  Oberammer- 
gau.  No  play  of  recent  years  has  left  a  more  pro- 
found stamp  on  my  mind  than  Everyman.  That 
wonderful  sermon  and  picture  and  story  expressed 
all  human  life  and  thought. 

If  you  don't  take  the  drama  this  way,  if  you 
don't  realize  those  opportunities  and  possibilities 
and  get  the  genius  of  the  nation  to  working  them 
out;  if  you  take  a  hostile  attitude  and  try  to  keep 
the  drama  from  expressing  what  the  nation  is 
thinking  about;  then  you  will  bring  about  the  very 
evil  you  seek  to  avoid.  That  happened  in  England 
when  the  Puritan  conscience  was  uppermost.  It 
boycotted  and  suppressed  the  theater;  and  the 
result  was  the  only  genuinely  licentious  stage 
England  has  ever  had.  If  the  people  in  this 
country  who  are  trying  to  stifle  expression  on  the 
stage  were  of  the  majority,  the  result  would  be  an 
outbreak  of  some  form  of  indecency. 

Some  ten  years  ago  the  American  stage  did 
not  express  very  much.  What  it  did  express  is 
represented  by  Rip  Van  Winkle  —  a  marvellous 
performance,   but   the   play  itself   a  picture   of   a 


250  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

drunkard,  with  the  audience  invited  to  think  what 
a  splendid  fellow  he  was,  and  how  hard  his  family 
was  in  not  liking  to  have  him  drunk.  Most  of 
the  plays  of  that  time  were  either  sentimentality 
without  sense,  like  this  one,  or  pretty  stories  of  a 
girl  and  a  boy,  with  some  not  too  serious  obstacles 
before  them,  who  in  the  end  were  married  and 
lived  happily  ever  after.  They  were  all  done  by 
one  pattern.  Now  the  drama  is  a  great  con- 
structive and  expressive  force. 

One  name  must  stand  out  in  any  survey  of  the 
change,  and  that  is  the  name  of  Henrik  Ibsen.  It 
is  seldom  that  a  great  man  can  mean  as  much  to 
a  different  civilization  as  to  his  own.  Ibsen  can 
never  be  to  the  masses  of  the  American  people 
what  he  might  have  been  had  he  been  an  American; 
but  he  showed  a  wonderfully  superior  mind  and 
technique  in  approaching  the  problems  of  his  day, 
and  others  have  followed  him.  In  Spain  we  have 
Echegaray;  in  Germany,  Hauptmann  and  Suder- 
mann.  In  France  the  influence,  though  not  so 
strong  or  direct,  was  felt.  And  in  England  the 
entire  drama  was  made  over.  The  "tea  cup 
drama"  disappeared,  and  we  have  a  series  of  men 
now,  in  England  and  in  this  country,  that  have 
made  this  one  of  the  notable  dramatic  eras  of  all 
time.  (The  speaker  illustrated  this  by  speaking 
of  the  work  of  Shaw  and  Galsworthy,  and  the 
new  one-act  plays  of  Barrie.) 

We  cannot  have  a  great  stage  unless  it  repre- 
sents the  genius  of  its  time.    It  may  be  a  comic 


MODERN  DRAIVIA  AS  A  SOCIAL  FORCE     251 

genius,  as  with  Moliere  in  France;  but  our  people 
are  serious.  We  are  the  first  great  real  democracy 
that  has  ever  existed,  and  we  have  many  prob- 
lems. We  have  been  compelled  to  realize  that 
even  in  America  the  drama  is  the  expression  of 
the  ideas  of  grown  people,  and  not  a  toy  for  chil- 
dren. A  singular  thing  is  that  this  complaint 
against  frank  speaking  is  always  aimed  at  serious 
plays. 

It  is  extraordinarily  important  that  we  should 
win  this  fight,  and  win  it  good  and  hard.  Democ- 
racy is  an  exciting  thing,  but  allowed  to  go  in  the 
wrong  direction,  it  can  be  made  comfortable  and 
commonplace  instead.  Let  us  go  in  the  right 
direction,  realize  all  our  possibilities,  and  we  shall 
have  great  geniuses  and  great  art.  And  the  drama 
will  do  this  for  us  if  we  see  that  it  treats  of  the 
real.  Do  this  for  the  drama,  and  you  will  find  that 
it  is  as  enriching  and  valuable  and  proud  a  posses- 
sion as  the  nation  has. 

The  Questions 

Q.  Will  you  kindly  give  your  opinion  of  Shakes- 
peare's  The  Merchant  of  Venice? 

A.  All  I  can  say  in  a  short  space  is  that  I 
think  it  is  one  of  his  best  plays  from  two  points 
of  view  —  plot  and  acting  parts. 

Q.  The  churches  teach  good  and  evil  in  an 
abstract  way,  but  in  such  plays  as  Damaged  Goods 
we  get  action  and  reaction  and  result;  and  in  such 
cases  does  not  the  drama  go  beyond  the  church? 


252  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

A.  Personally,  I  like  to  confine  myself  to  what 
I  am  sure  of.  I  am  sure  both  have  done  a  great 
deal  of  good  and  are  going  to  do  more. 

Q.  Do  not  scenes  of  violent  crime  act  as  a 
stimulant  to  young  minds? 

A.  It  depends  on  how  it  is  done.  The  murder 
of  Banquo  and  Duncan  by  Macbeth  never  inspired 
any  one  to  murder. 

Q.  What  is  your  opinion  of  William  Winter's 
criticism  of  the  present-day  stage? 

A.     I  think  it  is  piffle. 

Q.  Since  you  have  criticized  the  dramatic  critic, 
why  do  you  not  criticize  the  editor  who  is  respon- 
sible for  him? 

A.  I  am  perfectly  willing  to  divide  the  respon- 
sibility between  them  and  the  public,  which  I  hope 
soon  will  demand  something  better. 

Q.  Are  there  any  plays  depicting  the  unjust 
economic  system  between  labor  and  capital? 

A.  There  has  been  a  stream  of  them,  from 
Hauptmann's  The  Weavers  to  Charles  Rann  Ken- 
nedy. But  the  best  playwrights  make  such  dis- 
cussions a  part  of  a  genuine  presentation  of  life. 

Q.  Has  the  modern  problem  play,  like  The 
Second  Mrs.  Tanqueray,  an  uplifting  influence  on 
the  community? 

A.  I  think  the  problem  play  has  a  very  uplift- 
ing influence,  and  that  particular  play  was  a  pioneer 
in  the  field. 

Q.  What  do  you  think  of  Tolstoi's  The  Kreutzer 
Sonata  f 


MODERN  DRAMA  AS  A  SOCIAL  FORCE     253 

A.  My  opinion,  given  with  the  utmost  humility, 
is  that  it  is  the  expression  of  a  great  mind  become 
morbid. 

Q.  Will  the  drama  transform  or  eliminate  from 
human  nature  the  innate  quality  of  selfishness? 

A.  I  think  that  is  a  pretty  large  order  to  give 
the  drama. 

Q.  Won't  the  young  people  be  unduly  and  too 
early  interested  in  sex  by  its  free  discussion.'* 

A.  I  think  not.  In  my  youth  the  young  people 
talked  about  it  in  a  smutty  manner.  Discussing 
it  frankly  would  do  away  with  that  condition. 

Q.  How  can  we  expect  the  police,  who  are  in 
league  with  vice,  to  censor  plays  like  Mrs.  Warren's 
Profession  ? 

A,     You  all  know  the  answer:   we  can't. 

Q.  Is  the  working  agreement  recently  effected 
between  the  syndicate  and  the  Shuberts  going  to 
affect  freedom  in  producing  plays  outside  of  that 
group? 

A.  One  of  the  things  that  held  back  the  Amer- 
ican drama  was  monopoly.  Then  the  split  came 
and  gave  opportunity  to  adventurous  playwrights. 
But  soon  two  theaters  were  being  erected  in  towns 
that  could  support  only  one,  and  that  has  led  to 
the  present  agreement.  If  it  lives  up  to  the  pres- 
ent terms,  very  well;  but  there  is  danger  that  the 
drama  may  again  be  set  back  seriously. 

Q.  What  do  you  think  of  Shaw's  criticism  of 
Shakespeare? 

A.     I  think  that  usually  genius  is  humble,  but 


254  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE   MAKING 

sometimes  you  have  genius  in  a  person  who  has 
also  the  spirit  of  paltry  vanity,  and  that  is  Shaw. 

Q.  What  do  you  think  of  plays  dealing  with  the 
problem  of  assimilation? 

A.  The  only  one  I  know  is  The  Melting  Pot, 
and  that  is  a  winning,  but  not  a  great,  play. 

Q.     What  do  you  think  of  Ibsen's  Ghosts? 

A.     I  think  it  is  an  over-protest. 

Q.  As  between  The  Follies  of  1913  and  Damaged 
Goods,  which  would  you  prefer  your  daughter  to  see? 

A.  If  there  is  any  one  in  the  audience  who 
would  prefer  his  daughter  to  see  the  Follies,  let 
him  speak  up! 

Q.  Why  do  you  say  you  haven't  any  scale  for 
weighing  the  church  against  the  drama? 

A.     Because  it  is  true. 

Q.  What  will  be  the  effect  of  the  enfranchise- 
ment of  women  on  the  social  evil? 

A .  The  enfranchisement  of  women  —  the  set- 
ting free  of  their  ideals  so  that  they  can  work 
effectively  in  the  community  —  will  have  many 
great  advantages,  none  greater  than  the  raising 
of  the  sexual  standard. 

Q.  Don't  the  economic  conditions  of  to-day  pre- 
vent a  poor  man  from  seeing  plays  like  Damaged 
Goods,  playing  in  a  high-class  theater  at  high  prices? 
•  A.  Yes,  but  the  whole  thing  will  be  in  moving 
pictures  soon. 

Q.  Do  you  know  any  play  that  will  teach  the 
working  people  to  keep  what  they  create? 

A.     I  don't  think  plays  can  go  ahead  of  the  best 


MODERN  DRAIVL^  AS  A  SOCIAL  FORCE     255 

intelligence  of  the  community  and  that  problem 
has  not  yet  been  solved. 

Q.  What  effect  have  the  moving  pictures  on 
our  children  who  go  to  see  them  so  much? 

A.  The  only  bad  effect  I  have  seen  is  the  lack 
of  continued  attention.  On  the  other  hand,  they 
are  reaching  millions  who  never  before  had  any- 
thing to  feed  their  minds. 

Q.     What  do  you  think  of  Ibsen's  Nora.^^ 

A.  Nora  is  an  event  in  history.  The  feminist 
movement,  first  heralded  by  her,  is  the  biggest 
movement  of  our  time. 

Q.  Isn't  sex  something  too  delicate  to  handle 
anywhere  but  in  the  family  .f* 

A.  That  isn't  the  choice  that  is  present.  It  is 
a  choice  between  having  light  as  we  can  get  it 
or  no  light  at  all. 

Q.  Couldn't  Damaged  Goods  and  plays  of  that 
sort  carry  out  their  purpose  without  being  so  out- 
spoken.'^ 

A.  No;  exactly  what  is  unhealthy  is  this  idea 
that  when  we  speak  about  sex  we  have  got  to  feel 
embarrassed. 

Q.  Did  not  Ibsen  go  too  far  in  abolishing  some 
points  in  the  technique  of  the  drama.^* 

A.  Because  Ibsen  did  a  thing  with  superb  re- 
sult doesn't  mean  that  every  one  has  to  do  the 
same  thing,  and  every  one  doesn't. 

Q.  Isn't  it  because  people  don't  want  to  know 
the  truth  that  they  object  to  plays  like  Damaged 
Goods f 


256  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

A.  I  am  afraid  tliat  is  true  of  a  large  part  of 
the  male  half  of  the  human  race.  The  men  com- 
plain where  the  women  applaud,  because  people 
always  object  to  having  a  privilege  taken  away  from 
them,  and  because  they  have  been  accustomed 
from  boyhood  to  think  of  sex  in  a  smutty  way. 

Q.  Why,  when  all  the  people  are  thinking  of 
this  thing,  are  we  so  afraid  to  face  the  truth  and 
the  facts? 

A.     We  are  less  and  less  afraid  every  year. 

Q.  Do  you  think  that  the  moral  effect  of  such 
a  play  as  Damaged  Goods  is  lasting? 

A.  I  certainly  do.  I  believe  that  such  plays 
are  helping  the  feminist  movement  to  stamp  out 
prostitution  as  a  business. 

Q.  I  should  like  to  know  if,  under  a  state  where 
Socialism  would  exist  and  profit  be  wiped  out, 
prostitution  would  not  be  wiped  out  also? 

A.  Socialism  or  any  other  method  which  puts 
woman  on  a  footing  of  equality  with  man  will  re- 
duce prostitution. 

Q.  If  it  is  true  that  a  majority  of  the  men  and 
women  of  America  have  little  knowledge  of  the 
drama  as  a  great  art,  why  would  it  not  be  wise 
to  teach  it  in  the  high  schools? 

A.  It  is  being  taught,  more  and  more,  and  in  a 
way  they  can  understand,  and  the  little  children 
are  being  grouped  together  and  put  to  acting 
fine  plays. 

Q.  Isn't  sex  hygiene  too  serious  a  subject  to 
be  taught  in  the  grammar  schools? 


MODERN  DRAMA  AS  A  SOCIAL  FORCE     257 

A.  Certainly  it  would  be  better  taught  in  the 
homes,  if  they  were  very,  very  wise;  otherwise  in 
the  schools,  if  we  had  ideal  teachers.  It  is  a  case 
where  experts  disagree. 

Q.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  actors  are  well 
known  to  be  people  of  loose  morals,  are  they  the 
people  to  teach  us.^^ 

A.  Even  if  that  were  true,  it  would  be  no 
reason  why  they  should  not  express  moral  teach- 
ings. My  opinion  is  that  stage  people  have  a 
good  deal  less  hypocrisy  than  others.  In  view  of 
their  temptations  they  show  as  high  a  standard 
morally  as  any  other  class. 

Q.  I  should  like  you  to  tell  me  who  you  think 
is  the  greatest  American  dramatist  and  what  is 
his  masterpiece. 

A.  A  generation  ago  I  should  have  said  James 
A.  Heme  and  Margaret  Fleming.  To-day  there  are 
too  many  to  say. 

Q.  What  is  your  attitude  toward  Bought  and 
Paid  For? 

A.  My  attitude  is  not  that  of  most  people.  I 
consider  it  a  well-constructed  play  with  a  good 
moral,  but  of  commonplace  texture. 

Q.  What  do  you  think  of  Salvation  Nell  and  of 
the  work  of  the  Salvation  Army.^^ 

A.  I  admire  the  play  and  I  think  very  highly 
of  the  work  of  the  Salvation  Army. 

Q.  What  do  you  think  of  the  five-cent  vaude- 
ville theaters? 

A.     Just  what  I  said  I  did  of  the  "movies." 


258  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

Q.  Is  there  any  call  for  a  play  like  Hindle 
Wakes? 

A.  That  is  in  a  different  class  from  these  plays 
we  have  been  discussing,  and  I  do  not  think  from 
merely  reading  it  I  can  criticize  it,  but  I  should 
be  among  the  radicals  if  it  were  produced  here, 
and  advocate  the  expression  of  any  ideas  of  sex 
liberty  whatsoever  upon  the  stage. 


CHAPTER  IV 

GOD   AND   DEMOCRACY 

An  Address  Delivered  at  the  Ford  Hall 
Meeting,  December  29,  1913 

By  Professor  Charles  Prospero  Fagnani,  D.D.,  of 
Union  Theological  Seminary,  New  York 

GOD  and  Democracy.  That  is  the  greatest 
subject  in  the  world.  I  do  not  say  sub- 
jects, because  God  and  democracy  are 
one.  You  cannot  separate  God  and  democracy, 
the  God  of  the  Hebrew  prophets  and  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth.  And  you  cannot  separate  democracy 
from  God.  For  if  we  believe  in  democracy,  we 
believe  in  God's  purpose,  God's  ideal,  and  that  is 
believing  in  God. 

If  we  say  that  we  believe  in  God,  that  commits 
us  to  his  program  for  the  world.  I  want  to  say, 
of  course,  that  what  I  mean  by  democracy  is 
something  special.  It  is  not  the  kind  of  democracy 
of  this  poem  from  a  Texas  paper,  written  shortly 
after  the  last  election: 

"  Praise  God  from  whom  all  blessings  flow. 
Bring  forth  the  crops  and  let  them  grow. 
The  party  banner  raise  on  high 
Let  trumpets  blow,  let  people  shout. 


260  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

Let  everybody  dance  with  glee. 
Democracy!     Oh,  bless  the  day! 
The  one  for  whom  we  oft  did  pray 
Has  won,  and  now  the  jobs  are  ours. 
We  dwell  henceforth  in  fairest  bowers. 
In  custom  houses  we'll  hold  sway  — 
It  surely  is  a  time  to  pray." 

This  is  one  kind  of  democracy;  but  democracy, 
when  we  conjoin  God  with  it,  is  the  thing  that  we 
ask  for  in  the  Lord's  Prayer  when  we  say  "Thy 
will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  done  in  Heaven." 
It  means  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth.  The 
kingdom  of  God  is  the  Jewish  term  and  the  Chris- 
tian term  for  democracy.  I  want  to  carry  you 
along  with  me  in  connection  with  some  pre- 
suppositions. 

I  want  to  assume  that  you  agree  with  me  in 
regard  to  certain  matters.  The  first  of  the  three 
suppositions  that  I  will  assume  is  that  you  all 
believe  in  change,  in  perfection,  in  development, 
in  progress,  in  evolution;  that  you  believe  that 
"the  best  is  yet  to  be,"  that  progress  is  divine, 
that  our  God  is  a  living  God  whose  motto  is 
"Behold,  I  make  all  things  new";  that  what  man 
has  done,  man  can  do  better,  and  man  must  do 
better. 

We  cannot  get  along  without  institutions,  but 
we  have  always  got  to  be  on  our  guard  with 
respect  to  institutions.  Institutions  are  always 
more  or  less  antiquated;  they  cannot  become 
institutions  until  they  are  antiquated.  Now  an 
egg-shell   is   an   institution;    but  the  living  chick 


GOD  AND  DEMOCRACY  261 

inside  must  not  be  sacrificed  to  the  integrity  of 
that  institution.  I  have  read  this  with  regard  to 
the  constitution:  "The  constitution  is  one  of  the 
few  formal  documents  without  which  a  democracy  is 
impossible;  it  professes  that  progress  cannot  be 
made  by  providing  that  things  shall  not  change. 
It  was  a  happy  compromise  of  a  wrangle  by  our 
forefathers,  than  whom  nobody  since  has  been 
wiser.  The  beauty  of  it  is  that  it  can  mean 
almost  anything,  but  it  takes  a  Supreme  Court, 
or  a  majority  thereof,  to  decide  what  it  means; 
it  has  lasted  so  long  and  meant  so  many  things 
that  it  is  now  famous." 

Conservatism,  reputable  and  respectable  though 
it  claims  to  be,  is  in  essence  opposition  to  God, 
that  is,  to  the  living  God.  It  is  sincerely  reverent 
of  a  God  who  did  things  long  ago.  Conservatism 
justifies  its  opposition  to  progress  by  claiming  that 
without  it  progress  would  be  too  fast;  and  it  uses 
figures  of  speech  and  says  that  brakes  are  necessary 
to  the  chariot  of  progress.  That  all  depends  on 
which  way  the  chariot  is  headed.  If  we  believe 
in  God,  we  believe  that  the  chariot  is  going  up- 
hill, and  not  down.  No  man  in  his  senses  would 
apply  the  brakes  in  going  uphill;  and  progress 
is  always  uphill. 

So  we  sometimes  hear  that  unbridled  democracy 
is  a  bad  thing.  It  is  not  difiicult  to  understand 
what  unbridled  democracy  is.  It  is  democracy 
without  a  bridle,  and  we  presume  that  democracy 
without  a  bridle  is  a  free  democracy,  one  which 


262  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  I^iAKING 

may  wander  whithersoever  it  listeth.  Is  that  a 
good  thing  or  a  bad  thing?  Was  the  American 
Revolution,  for  instance,  a  form  of  bridled  or 
unbridled  democracy?  If  democracy  is  going  to 
wear  a  bridle,  who  is  going  to  put  it  on,  and  who 
is  going  to  hold  the  reins? 

I  will  assume  that  you  believe  in  progress,  in 
perfection.  Unfortunately,  not  every  one  does, 
and  I  am  paying  you  a  big  compliment.  Men 
have  been  taught  to  be  afraid  of  change,  to  oppose 
it  on  principle.  We  constantly  hear  people  say, 
"What  has  been  good  enough  for  our  forefathers 
ought  to  be  good  enough  for  us."  And  that  is 
the  people's  sentiment  in  many  quarters.  Why, 
I  have  even  heard  it  applied  to  Hell.  I  know  of 
a  Presbyterian  who  said,  "For  my  part,  I  believe 
in  an  old-fashioned  hell;  a  hell  that  was  good 
enough  for  my  father  is  good  enough  for  me." 
Now  the  fact  is  that  something  that  was  good 
enough  for  our  father  is  not  good  enough  for  us. 
Our  fathers,  if  alive  to-day,  would  want  better 
than  they  had  in  their  time;  and  would  reproach 
us  for  our  idolatry  of  their  outworn  and  anti- 
quated institutions  and  constitutions  and  every- 
thing else. 

Do  you  suppose  that  if  George  Washington  were 
in  Boston  to-morrow  and  he  wanted  to  go  to  New 
York  (as  he  probably  would),  that  he  would  prefer 
the  stage-coach  to  the  Bay  State  Limited?  Not 
much, —  I  can  speak  for  George. 

I  believe  that  you  take  the  helpful  view  and  the 


GOD  AND  DEMOCRACY  263 

divine  view,  and  that  you  are  not  afraid  of  prog- 
ress. 

Now  my  second  presupposition  is  this:  I  will 
take  for  granted  that  you  believe  with  me  in  the 
essential  dignity  and  worth  and  goodness  of  human 
nature;  that  you  do  not  believe  in  total  depravity; 
at  least,  not  as  much  as  you  used  to;  that  you 
agree  with  me  that  what  human  nature  needs  is 
not  so  much  a  change  as  a  chance.  Humanity  has 
never  had  a  fair  chance  yet.  To  believe  in  God  is 
to  believe  in  men.  We  may  take  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
for  an  example  in  this  matter.  The  supreme 
believer  in  God  was  the  supreme  believer  in  his 
fellow  men.  I  will  assume  that  you  share  the 
confidence  of  Jesus  in  human  nature,  that  you 
believe  that  man  would  rather  be  decent  than  not; 
that  woman  would  rather  be  decent  than  not. 
That  men  would  prefer  the  approbation  of  their 
fellows  to  their  scorn;  that  men  would  be  infinitely 
better  if  they  had  more  help  and  fewer  handicaps. 
I  know,  however,  that  many  cherish  the  doctrine 
of  total  depravity,  like  the  old  lady  who  said, 
*'If  you  take  away  my  total  depravity,  I  won't 
have  any  religion  left." 

My  third  supposition  is  this:  that  you  believe 
in  freedom,  in  liberty.  This  follows  necessarily. 
If  man  is  inherently  trustw^orthy,  you  are  not 
afraid  to  "loose  him  and  let  him  go."  I  will 
assume  that  you  agree  with  me  that  men  were 
made  for  freedom  and  not  for  bondage,  that  men 
flourish  best  when  most  free,  that  all  the  wars  of 


264  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

humanity  throughout  history  can  be  traced  back 
to  some  form  of  oppression,  of  coercion  of  man  by 
man. 

Let  me  trace  with  you  the  historical  connection 
between  rehgion  and  democracy.  I  would  like  to 
take  you  on  an  aeroplane  trip  across  the  mountain 
peaks  of  the  Bible.  The  dawning  of  democracy 
goes  back  to  Moses,  about  twelve  hundred  years 
before  Christ,  more  than  three  thousand  years  ago. 
Moses  was  a  labor  agitator  who  headed  a  success- 
ful strike,  the  result  of  which  was  a  permanent 
lock-out  on  their  own  part  of  a  number  of  Hebrew 
slaves  who  laid  down  their  tools  and  marched  out 
of  Egypt  never  to  go  back  again.  Moses  is  the 
great  type  of  class-conscious  emancipator.  You 
see,  Moses  had  the  choice  of  continuing  to  be 
the  favorite  of  the  Egyptian  king  as  the  adopted 
son  of  Pharaoh's  daughter;  but  he  preferred  to 
make  common  cause  with  his  own  people. 

The  Jews  became  the  custodians  of  the  world. 
We  must  understand  the  story  of  their  develop- 
ment. There  are  few  Jews  that  know  the  story 
themselves.  The  Jews  are  not  a  pure  race,  any 
more  than  any  other  race  is  pure.  They  are  a 
mixed  race.  Their  religion  has  been  a  com- 
promise between  two  distinct  elements  that  may 
be  described  as  Jehovistic  and  Baalistic,  the  reli- 
gion of  the  Amorites  with  which  it  was  assimilated. 
Now  Judaism  is  the  result  of  a  mixture  of  these 
two  elements;  and  Christianity,  which  absorbed 
the  essence  of  Judaism,  absorbed  those  two  strains. 


GOD  AND  DEMOCRACY  265 

You  find  two  different  ideals  fighting  for  the  mas- 
tery, —  the  brotherly  love  of  the  nomads  and  the 
ritualistic  religion  of  the  city  civilization.  You 
find  two  different  ideas  of  God,  the  Hebrew  idea 
of  God  that  puts  the  emphasis  on  justice,  and  the 
Canaanite  idea  which  puts  it  on  sacrifice  and  ritual- 
ism. You  find  two  different  ideals  of  Society,  — • 
one  in  which  brotherhood  is  the  ideal,  the  other 
marked  by  class  distinctions.  Now  these  two 
diverging  lines  have  come  down  to  us  of  the 
present  day,  the  religion  of  the  priests  and  the 
religion  of  the  prophets;  religion  of  the  priestly 
type  which  puts  the  emphasis  on  the  things  to 
be  done  to  God,  and  the  other  which  cares  about 
the  things  that  we  are  to  do  for  our  brother  man. 
The  Hebrew  prophets  are  tribunes  of  the  people  — 
the  dauntless  and  fearless  arraigners  of  kings  and 
princes,  and  governments.  The  Hebrew  priests 
had  the  idea  that  God  needed  to  be  placated  by 
gifts  and  sacrifices,  and  even  by  human  sacrifices. 
The  prophets  boldly  stood  forth  against  tyranny 
and  oppression  whether  in  the  Church  or  in  the 
State.  Their  entire  zeal  was  not  for  the  services 
of  the  shrine  and  of  the  temple,  but  for  the  social 
relations  of  men  through  justice  and  brotherliness. 
Read  the  Hebrew  prophets;  listen  to  the  words 
of  Amos  which  he  spoke  about  the  year  750  B.C. 
in  the  Hebrew  shrine  at  Bethel.  Also  the  prophet 
named  Ezekiel,  who  lived  some  century  or  more 
later.  When  you  go  home  take  a  Bible,  find  the 
thirty-fourth  chapter  of  Ezekiel,  and  see  if  you  don't 


2GG  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE   MAKING 

get  news  there  that  will  be  more  recent  than  any 
you  can  find  in  the  papers  to-morrow  morning. 

Now,  whatever  else  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was,  he 
was  the  successor  of  the  prophets  and  the  greatest 
of  them.  All  the  stress  of  his  tremendous  person- 
ality was  put  on  loving  men.  I  want  you  to  hear 
some  of  the  words  of  Jesus  as  recorded  by  tradi- 
tion, and  you  will  see  why  he  is  to  rank  among 
the  prophets  of  the  early  times.  He  is  reported  as 
having  begun  his  ministry  by  claiming  happiness 
for  poor  people  especially.  "Happy  are  the  poor: 
for  yours  is  the  Kingdom  of  God."  It  does  not 
mean  that  they  were  happy  then  but  were  going 
to  be  happy  when  the  kingdom  of  God  came. 
"Happy  are  ye  that  hunger;  for  the  kingdom  of 
God  is  coming,  and  then  you  shall  eat."  "Happy 
are  ye  that  weep."  Whereas  in  connection  with 
that  was,  "Woe  unto  you  that  are  rich,  woe  unto 
you  that  are  full  now  and  have  all  that  you  need, 
for  ye  shall  hunger  for  the  things  that  the  king- 
dom gives."  In  the  Lord's  Prayer  we  find,  "Give 
us  this  day  our  daily  bread";  that  includes  chops, 
steaks,  bread  and  butter.  Some  people  have  the 
idea  that  Jesus  was  too  high-toned  to  have  anything 
to  do  with  the  things  necessary  to  us  and  they 
interpret  "bread"  as  spiritual  food.  Jesus  did  not 
mean  anything  of  the  kind.  He  meant  substan- 
tial bread,  bread  made  out  of  wheat,  whole  wheat. 

Now,  I  am  going  to  tell  you  something  that 
none  of  you  know,  absolutely  none.  I  am  going 
to  read  you  from  the  revised  version;  and  then  I 


GOD  AND  DEMOCRACY  267 

am  going  to  tell  you  what  Jesus  really  said,  and 
the  way  it  should  be  translated. 

"When  he  saw  the  multitude  he  was  moved  with 
compassion  for  them  because  they  were  distressed 
and   scattered    as   sheep   not  having   a   shepherd." 

I  am  going  to  tell  you  the  way  that  it  is  in  the 
Greek,  the  way  it  should  be  put: 

"When  he  saw  the  multitude,  he  was  filled  with 
compassion  for  them  because  they  were  skinned, 
flayed  alive." 

It  was  indeed  distress,  but  we  translate  it  better 
when  we  understand  that  it  means  skinned,  and 
that  the  word  "skinned"  means  thrown  to  the 
ground  bleeding,  with  their  hide  off,  and  left  to 
shift  for  themselves. 

Jesus  did  not  believe  in  benefactions  or  bene- 
factors, nor  in  paternalism.  He  did  not  believe 
in  a  state  of  society  in  which  some  people  would 
accumulate  so  much  money  that  they  would  not 
know  what  to  do  with  it.  We  must  have  no  bene- 
factors because  we  must  be  in  a  position  to  do  our 
benefactions  for  ourselves.  And  now  the  last 
passage : 

"Call  no  man  your  father  upon  earth." 

If  this  is  not  a  solar-plexus  blow  to  paternalism! 

''Neither  be  ye  called  masters,  for  one  is  your 
master" 

You  all  see  how  Jesus  feels  about  this  matter. 
But  listen  to  what  an  eminent  representative  of 
the  churches  has  said  in  regard  to  paternalism: 

"A    fatherly    interest    and    sympathetic    relation 


268  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE   IMAKING 

between  employer  and  employed  would  solve  the 
entire   difference  between   labor   and   capital." 

The  Christianity  of  Jesus  is  democracy;  it  is 
the  kingdom  of  Heaven.  It  is  the  social  order  in 
which  human  groups  are  organized  as  brothers  to 
manage  their  own  affairs  for  the  highest  welfare 
of  all  the  members  of  the  group. 

Democracy  is  fraternalism  or  brotherhood,  as 
against  paternalism.  It  is  cooperation  versus  com- 
petition. Democracy  is  going  to  do  away  with  the 
stratification  of  society  into  classes.  Listen  to 
what  is  said  by  another  representative  of  the 
church:  "The  churches  need  to  be  Christianized, 
the  churches  need  to  be  democratized,  the  churches 
need  to  be  fraternalized."  And  I  can  say  it  with 
all  the  better  grace  because  I  belong  to  the 
church. 

Did  you  read  that  pitiful  story  of  the  young 
Greek,  aged  seventeen,  who  saved  enough  money 
to  bring  his  sister  to  this  country,  but  who  will 
probably  have  to  be  deported.'^  He  starved  him- 
self into  insanity.  He  got  one  dollar  and  twenty- 
five  cents  a  day  and  lived  on  twenty-five  cents 
a  day.  He  paid  one  dollar  a  week  for  a  room  and 
bought  no  food  but  lived  on  the  scraps  his  fellow 
countrymen  gave  him.  Yet  out  of  his  wages 
he  had  saved  twenty  dollars  to  bring  his  sister 
here!  That  is  the  sort  of  feeling  that  the  people 
of  the  old  country  have  with  regard  to  America. 
T\Tiat  a  responsibility  that  puts  upon  us! 

When    shall    we   have   more    democracy    in    this 


GOD  AND  DEMOCRACY  269 

country?  WTienever  we  want  it  earnestly  and 
intelligently  enough.  Whenever  we  shall  be  deter- 
mined to  have  God's  will  done  in  the  United 
States  as  it  is  done  in  Heaven.  God  is  on  the 
side  of  the  people.  \Mio  can  be  against  us?  In 
that  day  patriotism  will  be  a  bigger  thing  than 
love  of  country.  It  will  mean  love  of  one's 
countrymen. 

The  Questions 

Q.  Does  the  speaker  believe  that  Jesus  Christ 
was  a  labor  agitator  and  that  the  Jews  crucified 
him? 

A.  He  was  an  agitator  and  was  prosecuted  by 
the  Roman  Government  at  the  instigation  of  the 
Jewish  authorities. 

Q.  Does  not  the  speaker  consider  it  worth 
while  to  mention  other  religions  than  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Hebrews? 

A.  I  spoke  one  hour  and  seven  minutes  and  did 
the  best  I  could. 

Q.  Has  the  Jewish  race  fulfilled  its  mission  in 
this  world? 

A.     It  has,  it  is,  and  it  is  going  to. 

Q.  What  does  the  speaker  think  of  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  word  "charity"? 

A.  There  is  distinct  advantage  in  the  Revised 
Version  of  1  Corinthians,  the  word  "love"  taking 
the  place  of  the  word  "charity"  in  the  King  James 
version. 

Q.     How  is  it  that  the  ruling  classes  do  not  have 


270  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

the  idea  of  democracy  which  God  has,  and  if  the 
common  people  were  raised  up,  would  they  not 
have  the  same  ideas  that  I  he  ruling  classes  have 
now? 

A.  It  is  not  a  question  of  putting  the  "outs" 
in  and  the  "ins"  out,  taking  down  those  above 
and  putting  up  those  below.  It  is  the  believing 
in  brotherhood.  There  are  plenty  of  the  ruling 
class  who  would  be  glad  to  see  democracy  come, 
as  individuals,  and  many  of  them  are  helping  to 
bring  it  along.  We  are  all  pretty  decent  on  the 
whole,  and  while  we  can  speak  against  classes  we 
must  be  careful  not  to  speak  against  individual 
members  of  the  classes.  We  are  all  human,  and 
there  is  good  and  bad  in  all  of  us. 

Q.  What  is  your  personal  opinion  of  the  polit- 
ical parties  of  America,  and  which  one  stands  for 
greater  progress? 

A.  If  you  will  promise  not  to  tell  any  one,  my 
private  opinion  is  that  the  party  which  has  the 
highest  ideals  and  which  is  going  to  do  the  most 
of  all  the  parties  that  exist  at  the  present  time  is 
the  Socialist  party. 

Q.  If  the  Christians  would  interpret  Jesus  as  a 
great  liberator  of  men  as  the  Jews  do  Moses, 
would  not  that  prevent  a  good  deal  of  misunder- 
standing between  them  and  the  Jews? 

A.     I  think  it  would. 

Q.     Give  us  your  reason  for  believing  in  God. 

A.  Why  simply  the  reason  that  Voltaire  gave: 
If  there  were  not  such  a  God,  we  should  have  to 


GOD  AND  DEMOCRACY  271 

invent  Him.  We  have  got  to  assume  God,  and 
until  you  can  get  some  better  hypothesis,  that  will 
have  to  hold. 

Q.  What  is  the  message  of  the  resurrection  con- 
cerning democracy.'^ 

A.  The  message  of  hope,  in  spite  of  death,  hell 
and  everything. 

Q.  If  democracy  means  so  much,  why  don't 
they  teach  it  to  children  in  the  schools  and  thor- 
oughly imbue  them  with  it? 

A.  Because  we  are  not  yet  democratic  enough 
to  teach  it  in  our  public  schools. 

Q.     Is  preaching  alone  sufficient,  or  is  it  not.'' 

A.  Nothing  alone  is  sufficient.  We  must  have 
as  many  different  ways  to  get  at  it  as  we  can 
think  of. 

Q.  Where  does  George  Moore  get  his  authority 
that  Jesus  was  not  crucified  but  was  put  to  death 
in  some  other  way.? 

A.  I  do  not  know.  There  are  a  great  many 
fanciful  notions  regarding  this. 

Q.  Why,  then,  in  view  of  the  statement  of  the 
professor,  is  there  so  much  prejudice  against  the 
Jews  to-day  .f* 

A.  Because  the  Christians  have  abused  the 
Jews,  and  we  are  always  prejudiced  against  people 
that  we  injure. 

Q.  In  view  of  Jesus'  teaching  in  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  against  violence  and  force,  how  can  a 
Christian-spirited  government  be  based   on   force? 

A.    No  government  is  thoroughly  Christian,  and 


272  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

most  governments  are  very  far  from  it.  It  is  our 
task  to  Christianize  the  government. 

Q.  What  is  your  opinion  of  the  Hebrew  proph- 
ets as  relating  to  the  Messiah .5^ 

A.  It  cannot  be  summed  up  in  a  sentence; 
there  are  many  varieties  of  Messianic  hope  among 
the  Jews.  One  that  He  would  come  to  establish 
the  Kingdom  of  God.  Another  that  He  would  not 
come  until  after  it  was  established.  The  Mes- 
sianic hope  of  the  Jews  in  its  essence  was  that  a 
good  time  is  coming. 

Q.  Are  not  human  beings  created  equal?  Why, 
then,  are  they  not  born  equal  mentally  .f' 

A.  They  are,  practically:  I  think  they  are  more 
nearly  equal  than  is  generally  believed,  and  that 
differences  are  due  to  education  and  environment. 


J 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   SEARCH    AFTER    GOD 

An  Address  Delivered  at  the  Ford  Hall 
Meeting,  January  3,  1915 

By  Reverend  George  A.  Gordon,  D.D.,  of  Boston, 

Massachusetts 

INASMUCH  as  we  have  never  seen  one  another 
before,  we  must  try  to  make  a  good  impres- 
sion upon  one  another.  This  Ford  Hall  insti- 
tution is  one  of  the  best  things  that  have  been 
established  since  I  came  to  Boston,  an  institution 
of  which  every  citizen  is  proud.  I  don't  see  but 
that  you  have  most  of  the  advantages  and  none  of 
the  disadvantages  of  a  church.  You  have  admir- 
able music,  free  pews,  no  collection,  and  no  old 
sermons.  A  friend  of  mine  said  to  me  before  I 
came  on  this  platform,  "Aren't  you  afraid.^*"  I 
said,  "No,  I  am  too  old";  and  why  should  I  be 
afraid,  looking  into  the  faces  of  friends,  fellow- 
pilgrims,  sharers  in  all  the  good  fortune  and  all 
the  bad  fortune  of  mortal  life.'^ 

However,  on  thinking  it  over,  I  am.  I  am  not 
afraid  of  this  audience,  but  of  a  nightmare  I  have, 
which  does  scare  me  greatly.     It  takes  this  shape: 


274  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  IVIAKING 

I  always  begin  at  the  Old  South  with  a  packed 
house  (that  is,  in  my  nightmare!),  and  I  can't  find 
the  end  of  my  sermon.  Before  I  get  through,  my 
audience  is  reduced  to  about  a  score  of  veterans. 
Now,  that  does  make  me  quail.  It  is  like  a  friend 
of  mine  who  was  made  pastor  of  Emmanuel 
Church  at  twenty-four,  and  one  day  he  went  to 
morning  service  at  9.30  instead  of  10.30,  and  found 
no  one  there  but  the  sexton.  "Oh,  Lord,"  he  said, 
*'I  feared  it  would  come  to  this,  but  I  did  not  ex- 
pect it  after  two  months!" 

I  am  going  to  be  very  serious  to-night,  though  I 
would  like  you  to  believe  that  I  can  be  funny  on 
occasion.  I  am  going  to  pay  you  the  highest  com- 
pliment it  is  in  me  to  pay,  to  discuss  seriously  the 
deepest  of  all  questions.  When  you  see  a  piece 
of  tapestry,  you  recognize  at  once  that  it  is  a  unity, 
something  entire,  a  whole.  When  you  analyze  it, 
you  find  that  it  has  certain  constituent,  essential 
parts.  There  are  the  warp,  the  woof,  the  design 
and  the  color,  making  the  character,  beauty,  spirit, 
of  the  whole.  Each  one  of  these  parts  is  just  as 
real  as  the  other.  All  four  are  necessary  to  con- 
stitute that  one  whole. 

Now,  take  the  all-round  experience  of  a  normally- 
developed  human  being.  That,  too,  is  a  whole,  a 
unity,  something  entire;  and  when  you  look  into  1 
it,  you  find  certaiii  essential  parts  without  which 
it  could  not  be  at  all.  And  one  part,  as  far  as  it 
goes,  is  just  as  essential  as  the  other  part.  In  the 
first  place  there  is  the  sense  of  self.     You   can't 


J 


THE  SEARCH  AFTER  GOD  275 

have  an  experience  without  a  subject.  That  is 
the  warp,  that  runs  lengthwise  on  the  loom  of 
existence.  In  the  second  place  there  is  the  sense 
of  nature,  nature  as  fact,  as  beauty,  as  law.  We 
call  this  the  woof,  the  thread  that  runs  crosswise 
on  the  loom  of  existence.  In  the  third  place  there 
is  the  social  nature  of  humanity.  Man  is  a  social 
being,  and  this  social  design  is  interwoven  with 
the  feeling  of  self  and  the  feeling  of  nature.  And 
the  fourth  thing  is  the  sense  of  the  infinite. 

Self,  nature,  social  humanity,  embosomed  in  the 
infinite,  and  penetrated  by  it:  those,  if  I  am  to 
speak  frankly,  seem  to  me  the  constituent  parts 
of  a  normal  human  experience.  We  do  not  hunt 
for  self  or  for  nature  or  for  humanity  or  for  the 
infinite;  they  are  all  together,  one  just  as  real  as 
the  other;  and  together  they  constitute  one  great 
human  experience.  When  you  ask  how  these  sev- 
eral feelings  emerge,  you  ask  one  of  the  pro- 
foundest  questions  that  the  human  mind  can  raise. 
How  does  the  feeling  of  self  emerge  in  the  baby.^^ 
How  does  the  sense  of  nature  get  into  the  con- 
sciousness.'^ How  do  we  become  aware  of  a  social 
humanity  .f^  How  do  we  attain  to  the  mighty  con- 
sciousness of  life  in  the  infinite?  All  great  phi- 
losophies, since  philosophy  began,  are  engaged  in 
the  endeavor  to  answer  these  questions.  Here  is 
the  mighty  task  of  the  collective  reason  of  man- 
kind. At  its  highest  and  best  it  is  endeavoring 
to  tell  us  how  the  feeling  of  the  reality  of  the 
personal  soul  has  come  into  existence,  how  we  are 


276  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

so  sure  of  nature  as  we  are,  how  we  come  to  know 
other  beings  as  real,  how  we  come  to  know  God. 

If  I  undertook  to  answer  all  these  four  questions 
you  would  be  here  till  next  year,  or  you  would  be 
dead,  or  I  should  be.  I  have  to  do  with  the  fourth: 
How  does  the  sense  of  the  infinite  emerge  and  be- 
come distinct  in  the  consciousness  of  man?  Let 
me  remind  you  that,  whether  wisely  or  foolishly, 
this  race  of  ours  is  a  religious  race.  From  the 
dawn  of  history,  among  all  peoples  and  tribes,  over 
the  whole  earth,  religion  has  been  the  most  impor- 
tant, the  most  tremendous  influence  in  the  life  of 
mankind.  Now,  how  do  we  make  clear,  articulate, 
and  real  to  ourselves  the  sense  of  the  infinite  and 
eternal? 

In  the  first  place,  there  is  the  pageant  of  nature, 
—  beautiful,  imposing,  glorious,  vast,  —  and  there 
is  the  pageant  of  humanity,  —  coming  out  of  the 
dim  dusk  of  prehistoric  times,  through  savagehood, 
and  barbarism,  and  early  civilization,  on  to  our 
own  time.  These  are  the  evanescent  and  the 
dependent  forms  of  the  universe,  Heraclitus  said: 
"It  is  impossible  to  bathe  twice  in  the  same 
stream.  Another  stream  has  come  before  you  can  jj 
bathe  the  second  time."  That  admirably  ex-  ' 
presses  the  vanishing  loveliness  and  terror  of 
nature  and  of  humanity.  But  on  what  does  the 
world  rest?  A  temporary  universe  without  an 
eternal  foundation  is  an  impossible  thought,  for 
your  universe  would  vanish  in  smoke.  A  dependent 
universe    without    an    independent    foundation    is 


THE  SEARCH  AFTER  GOD  277 

iintliinkable;  and  science  comes  to  our  rescue 
here,  informing  us  that  the  amount  of  energy  in  the 
universe  is  always  the  same.  There  is,  therefore, 
a  permanent  ground  of  all  change,  an  independent 
on  which  all  the  dependent  is  hung. 

The  universe  may  be  regarded  as  the  embodi- 
ment of  thought.  Bacon,  in  his  essay  on  "Athe- 
ism", says:  "I  would  rather  believe  all  the  legends 
in  the  Talmud  and  all  the  stories  in  the  Koran 
than  believe  that  this  universal  frame  came  into 
existence  and  remains  in  existence  without  mind." 
I  think  the  unsophisticated  human  being,  untwisted, 
unperverted  by  the  things  of  the  world,  naturally, 
in  the  presence  of  the  universe  of  wonder  and 
splendor  and  all  its  tokens  of  arrangement  and 
design  and  power,  feels  that  it  is  the  expression 
of  mind.  In  this  way  men  have  articulated  their 
sense  of  the  eternal  —  that  God  dwells  in  the  uni- 
verse as  your  mind  lives  in  your  body  and  frame. 

A  third  way  comes  closer  home.  Here  is  a 
young  man  who  has  a  heavenly  vision  of  justice, 
of  kindness,  of  warm-blooded  humanity,  of  social 
service  and  obligation,  of  integritj^;  to  be  one 
whose  life  shall  damage  no  other  life,  but  shall 
uplift  every  one  trodden  down,  lend  a  hand  to 
every  one  in  need  of  help.  And  he  begins  the  pur- 
suit of  it,  that  he  may  translate  it  into  thought 
and  feeling  and  activity.  He  doesn't  know  whether 
there  is  any  God  or  not,  but  he  says,  "Oh,  God,  if 
theie  be  a  God,  save  my  soul,  if  I  have  a  soul!" 
He  opens  all  his  nature  in  silent  supplication  to 


278  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

the  universe,  vast,  dumb,  terrible,  saying:  "Oh, 
help  me  to  realize  my  vision,  that  my  life  may 
become  good  and  only  good,  a  blessing  and  only  a 
blessing!"  And  he  goes  on  at  his  business  trying 
to  realize  it,  and  as  he  succeeds,  there  comes  into 
his  mind  a  sense  that  he  has  been  helped.  "The 
stars  in  their  courses  are  fighting  for  him."  There 
are  tides  of  power  that  help  him  onward.  And  by 
and  by  he  comes  to  feel  that  the  soul  of  the  uni- 
verse is  close  to  his  soul.  Such  a  man  comes 
eventually  to  feel  that  God  is  just  as  real  as  his 
own  soul.  You  can't  reason  that  man  out  of  his 
sense  of  God. 

Here  is  a  ship  at  sea,  in  a  tempest,  tossed  from 
wave  to  wave,  buffeted  by  breaker  after  breaker. 
Can  that  ship  doubt  the  existence  of  the  engines 
at  its  heart.?  Every  bolt,  every  bar,  every  part 
from  bow  to  stern,  from  keel  to  deck,  is  thrilled 
with  a  sense  of  the  power  of  those  engines.  They 
are  known  as  the  driving  power  of  the  steamer's 
life;  in  the  teeth  of  the  gale,  sinking  and  rising, 
this  power  is  driving  the  ship — home.  Precisely 
so,  when  a  man  is  in  the  storm  of  passion,  lust, 
greed,  hate,  selfishness,  and  is  making  for  the  port 
indicated  by  his  heavenly  vision,  God  is  known 
to  him  as  the  ideal  strength  of  his  life.  Wild  the 
seas,  and  he  is  tossed  hither  and  thither,  anything 
but  sightly  and  beautiful,  as  he  dips,  and  all  the 
waves  and  billows  of  social  unrest  go  over  him; 
but  he  is  gaining,  he  is  forging  his  way  into  a 
nobler  manhood,  he  knows  that  if  this  power  lasts, 


THE  SEARCH  AFTER  GOD  279 

he  will  arrive.  And  I  say  again:  along  this  line, 
you  may  talk  till  Doomsday  to  the  simplest  soul 
in  the  world,  who  can't  philosophize  a  bit;  the 
universe  is  with  him,  helping  him  onward  toward 
his  goal. 

Now,  there  is  still  another  way,  and  that  is  by 
the  way  of  the  good.  What  is  good.^^  Satisfac- 
tion. What  is  truth  .-^  The  satisfaction  of  the 
intellect.  Wlien  the  intellect  has  found  truth,  it 
asks  for  nothing  beyond;  it  has  come  to  its  goal. 
What  is  beauty  .f^  The  satisfaction  of  the  aesthetic 
sense.  When  beauty  in  its  highest  form  is  given 
to  the  aesthetic  sense,  there  is  no  seeking  for  any- 
thing beyond.  What  is  right .^  The  satisfaction 
of  man's  conscience.  And  remember,  when  you 
find  fault  with  the  world,  you  assert  your  own 
conscience:  when  you  criticise  the  universe  you 
lift  up  like  a  flag  your  own  moral  sense.  And 
what  is  love?  The  satisfaction  of  the  human  heart. 
Good,  then,  means  satisfaction.  And  the  absolute 
good,  whether  real  or  ideal,  means  complete 
satisfaction. 

Now  I  am  going  to  give  you  two  philosophical 
and  two  religious  examples.  The  first  is  Plato. 
In  his  great  dialogue,  The  Republic,  he  sets  out  in 
quest  of  justice.  To  this  end  he  takes  the  indi- 
vidual and  analyzes  him  into  three  parts,  reason, 
spirit,  appetite.  Justice  in  the  individual  is  where 
each  part  of  the  man  does  its  own  work  and  does 
it  well,  thus  producing  a  harmony.  But,  he  thinks, 
inasmuch  as  man  is  a  social  being,  he  would  better 


280  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE   MAKING 

look  at  it  in  the  State;  and  so  he  has  three  classes, 
answering  to  the  three  parts  of  man's  soul, —  the 
wise  men  or  rulers,  the  soldiers  who  guard  the 
State,  and  the  artisans.  These  classes  are  not 
fixed,  the  genius  can  ascend  or  the  fool  descend 
in  any  of  them.  But  this  State  never  can  be 
realized  unless  he  can  see  the  absolute  good  in  the 
center  of  the  universe;  and  the  search  for  this 
absolute  good  results  in  the  vision  of  God. 

The  next  example  is  Aristotle,  —  the  man  that 
I  call  the  champion  intellectual  athlete  of  the  world. 
In  his  Ethics  he  sets  out  in  quest  of  the  good. 
He  says  good  is  the  highest  activity  of  the 
highest  part  in  a  man,  the  reason.  He  was  the 
most  pronounced  theist  outside  of  Hebraism  and 
Christianity,  and  he  finds  this  good  is  God.  When 
a  man  finds  the  highest  good,  God  and  the  man 
run  parallel.  God  is  absolutely  perfect,  and  moves 
the  whole  world.  The  universe  falls  in  love  with 
Him,    and    is    moved,    delighted,    rested,    satisfied. 

(Doctor  Gordon's  two  religious  examples,  which 
he  did  not  have  time  to  give,  were  Buddhism  and 
Christianity.) 

You  see  human  beings  all  running  hither  and 
thither.  You  see  a  man  on  his  way  to  the  saloon. 
Why  does  he  go  there.f*  After  good,  —  satisfaction. 
You  see  a  man  making  money  hand  over  fist,  — 
his  own  and  somebody  else's.  What  is  he  doing 
that  for.?  He  thinks  it  is  good,  —  satisfaction. 
You  see  a  fashionable  woman  running  herself 
nearly  to  death,  going  from  party  to  party.     She, 


THE  SEARCH  AFTER  GOD  281 

too,  is  after  something  good.  You  see  what  I 
mean.  Half  the  world  is  seeking  good  where  it 
never  can  be  found;  it  is  apparent,  not  real,  good. 
That  is  the  tragedy  of  the  world,  and  I  have  looked 
into  it  for  more  than  sixty  years.  All  right  in 
your  desire  for  good;  that  is  fundamental,  insepa- 
rable from  human  souls:  but  all  wrong  if  you  are 
seeking  it  where  it  is  not  to  be  found.  It  is  the 
stories   of  Tantalus   and   Sisyphus   all   over   again. 

You  will,  in  your  splendid  love  of  freedom,  be- 
cause you  don't  know  any  such  thing  as  heresy 
here  (and  I  shouldn't  stay  here  if  I  thought  you 
did,  because  there  is  one  thing  I  have  stood  for 
all  my  life,  and  that  is  freedom,  —  give  every  man 
his  chance  to  do  his  own  thinking),  listen  to  a 
story  I  am  very  fond  of,  —  the  parable  of  the  two 
builders,  who  built  upon  the  sand  and  upon  the 
rock.  It  is  the  difference  between  the  unwise  and 
the  wise  search  for  good.  All  our  criticisms  are 
just  sparrow  twitters  compared  with  the  criticism, 
the  searching  power,  of  the  infinite  universe.  And 
no  fool  can  live  in  this  universe:  the  trouble  is, 
we  die  because  we  are  both  fool  and  wise  man, 
most  of  us. 

I  understand  you  are  going  to  ask  me  questions. 
I  will  tell  you  a  story  before  I  undergo  your  fire. 
There  was  a  meeting  of  the  Irish  Nationalists  in 
London,  and  the  chairman  was  a  little,  withered-up 
man  with  a  squeaky  voice.  After  Redmond  had 
spoken,  he  arose  and  said,  "Is  there  any  gentleman 
in  the  audience  who  would  like  to  ask  the  speaker 


282  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

a  question?"  A  big,  burly  John  Bull  got  up,  and 
the  chairman  said,  "Will  the  gentleman  kindly 
come  forward  to  the  platform,  so  that  his  question 
can  be  heard  by  the  audience?"  He  did  so,  and 
immediately  a  big  Irishman  hit  him  behind  the 
ear  and  he  was  carried  out  to  the  door.  Then 
the  little  chairman  got  up  again,  as  if  nothing 
had  happened,  and  squeaked,  "Is  there  any  other 
gentleman  in  the  audience  who  would  like  to  ask 
the  speaker  a  question?" 

If  I  can't  answer  you  one  way  I  will  the 
other! 

The  Questions 

Q.  What  feeling  for  good  has  a  murderer  at 
the  time  he  commits  murder? 

A.  Knocking  the  breath  out  of  his  adversary. 
The  thief,  the  bandit,  the  murderer,  —  each  is 
seeking  good  in  a  tragic  and  tragically  impossible 
manner. 

Q.  In  view  of  the  present  situation  in  Europe, 
ought  we  not  to  say,  "Man  is  on  earth,  society 
is  before  us:  what  can  we  do  to  make  things 
better?" 

A.  Couldn't  have  a  better  resolve  to  begin  the 
new  year. 

Q.  If  the  human  race  could  grasp  the  mys- 
teries of  nature,  wouldn't  there  be  less  reverence 
for  the  higher  things,  and  wouldn't  there  be 
monotony? 

A.     The  universe  is  infinite,  man  is  finite;   thereJ 


THE  SEARCH  AFTER  GOD  283 

needn't  be  any  apprehension  of  monotony.     Abso- 
lute knowledge  would  be  absolute  wonder. 

Q.     What  is  your  message  for  the  new  year.? 

A.  Have  you  been  asleep.?  Begin  the  quest 
for  the  good,  pursue  it  wisely  to  the  absolute  goal. 

Q.  Do  you  think  the  Christian  civilization  of 
Europe  has  been  built  on  the  sand,  and  what  rock 
should  civilization  then  be  built  upon? 

A.  There  are  two  elements  in  civilization  — 
that  which  we  have  brought  up  with  us  from  the 
brute,  and  that  represented  by  the  highest  human- 
ity. I  think  both  of  them  exist  in  Europe,  although 
one  of  them  seems  to  be  in  the  ascendant  to-day. 
I  cannot  despair  of  a  continent,  even  though  it 
seems  temporarily  to  have  gone  mad. 

Q.     Is  absolute  truth  material  or  ethereal.? 

A.  That  depends  upon  whether  one's  estimate 
of  the  absolute  reahty  is  material  or  spiritual. 
Science  is  more  idealistic  to-day  than  ever  before. 
That  encourages  a  religious  man  in  his  faith  that 
the  absolute  truth  is  spirit. 

Q,  If  will  is  the  strongest  part  of  humanity, 
why  isn't  there  enough  in  the  human  body  to 
keep  a  man  from  misery.? 

A.  There  is  something  wrong  with  your  major 
premise.  If  it  were  the  strongest  part,  it  would 
eliminate  misery  so  far  as  it  can  be  eliminated. 

Q.     What  do  you  think  about  Socialism? 

A.  As  a  philosophy  of  human  society,  it  is 
magnificent  as  a  spirit,  unwise  as  a  method  of 
arrangement.     It    cannot    be    wholly    commended 


284  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

and  it  certainly  should  not  be  wholly  condemned. 
The  same  could  be  said  of  the  individualistic 
system. 

Q.  Isn't  it  a  fact  that  people  are  not  being  or 
doing  good  because  of  the  artificial  life  they  lead 
and  the  struggle  for  existence  in  the  twentieth 
century.'* 

•  A.  There  is  our  problem.  We  have  to  fight 
our  battle  under  the  conditions  named,  and  they 
make  it  a  hard  fight,  but  we  can  win  in  spite 
of  them. 

Q.  Is  it  possible  for  a  man  to  search  for  good 
on  an  empty  pocket  and  an  empty  stomach.? 

A.  I  have  worked  all  day  in  Boston  as  a  stone- 
mason without  any  meals,  and  walked  six  miles 
for  the  first  one  —  and  I  thought  it  was  good  when 
I  got  it! 

I  Q.  Do  you  believe  in  the  Darwinian  theory, 
and  do  you  think  it  is  good.f* 

A.  According  to  that  theory,  man  is  not  only 
descended  from  the  ape,  but  he  has  within  him 
the  whole  menagerie,  and  sometimes  the  ape  is 
uppermost,  and  sometimes  the  ass.  I  am  inclined 
to  believe  in  it;   it  explains  a  lot. 

Q.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  savages  never 
refuse  food  to  any  one  in  their  tribe  who  is  of  use 
to  them,  are  we  not  hypocrites  to  put  people  in 
our  factories  and  make  them  work,  and  not  give 
them  enough  to  support  a  real  life.^^ 

A.  If  the  facts  are  as  you  stated,  I  should  sayj 
yes. 


THE  SEARCH  AFTER  GOD  285 

Q.  Isn't  it  true  that  in  the  present  distribution 
of  goods  it  is  impossible  for  the  average  workman 
to  seek  even  immediate  and  temporary  good;  and 
as  other  methods  have  failed,  would  it  not  be  a 
good  thing  for  him  to  try  Socialism? 

A.  I  don't  agree  that  an  honest  workman  can- 
not earn  a  competent  livelihood.  I  have  been 
there  myself.  Man  is  not  merely  an  economic 
creature.  Work  for  any  social  arrangement  you 
think  will  do  the  most  good,  but,  for  God's  sake, 
never  identify  good  with  a  fat  purse! 

Q.  What  message  has  the  church  to  give  us  to 
solve  the  problem  of  our  half-million  unemployed 
in  this  country  and  the  terrible  conflict  of  war  in 
Europe,  if  these  are  produced  by  Capitalism  and 
could  be  abolished  by  a  new  social  order.f^ 

A.  How  are  you  going  to  get  a  new  social  order 
without  manhood?  The  church  is  trying  to  make 
men:  making  a  poor  job  of  it  here  and  there,  but 
doing  its  best. 

Q.  If  poverty  makes  a  man  good  and  wealth 
makes  a  man  bad,  what  are  we  to  do  with  the 
surplus  property  the  rich  man  has,  which  is  doing 
him  so  much  harm? 

A.     Go  and  ask  him. 

Q.  Do  you  not  think  that  man's  desire  for 
pleasure  far  exceeds  his  desire  for  good? 

A.  A  man's  desire  for  pleasure  represents  his 
idea  of  good,  and  if  it  is  a  wise  idea,  it  is  good. 

Q.  Why  is  it  that  all  ministers  and  reformers 
hold  up  the  example  of  the  poor  boy  who  made 


286  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE   MAKING 

good,  and  forget  the  boys  in  the  reformatories 
who  are  crushed  down  by  the  same  system? 

A.  Why  do  we  hold  up  the  case  of  Abraham 
Lincoln?  In  order  to  inspire  all  the  boys  of  any 
latent  power  each  to  do  his  best  to  rise  as  high  as 
he  can.  There  is  no  slight  to  those  who  do  not 
rise,  and  it  is  not  necessary  to  forget  them. 

Q.  Are  not  clergymen  doing  wrong  in  not  com- 
ing out  and  saying  that  the  working  class  is  being 
robbed,   when  it   supports   our   whole   civilization? 

A.  I  like  to  have  a  man  stand  up  for  his  own 
set  and  claim  that  they  do  the  whole  job.  But 
the  leaders  are  necessary  also. 

Q.  Which  is  the  best  course  to  pursue  —  have 
the  working  people  own  all  things  for  their  own 
good  or  have  the  capitalists  own  all  for  their 
profit? 

A.  Neither  is  good  for  both.  You  have  got 
away  from  my  New  Year  message. 

Q.  Isn't  it  necessary  in  the  very  beginning  to 
give  a  man  the  proper  environment  in  order  that 
he  may  want  to  be  good? 

A.  It  is  a  very  difficult  thing  to  say  what  the 
proper  environment  is.  Abstractly,  you  would  not 
say  this  was  a  very  comfortable  environmont  for 
me,  but  I  have  no  doubt  it  is  good. 

Q.  Do  you  believe  that  the  soul  is  immortal 
substance,  even  in  the  case  of  those  who  do 
evil? 

A.     I  say  with  Abraham  Lincoln,  "All  or  none." 

Q.     Wouldn't    it    be    the    best    remedy    for    the 


THE  SEARCH  AFTER  GOD  287 

present  time  to  arbitrate  the  differences  between 
Judaism,  Catholicism,  and  Protestantism,  instead 
of  each  looking  upon  the  others  as  infidels? 

A.  I  don't  think  you  can  arbitrate:  let  each 
man  do  his  own  thinking  to  the  end  of  the  world. 
By  and  by,  if  we  think  long  and  honestly  enough 
we  shall  come  to  a  pretty  unanimous  state  of  mind 
at  the  last. 

Q.  Don't  you  think  we  are  all  on  the  road  to 
hell,  with  the  rest  of  the  people.'^ 

A.  No,  I  don't  believe  anybody  is  going  to  hell 
ultimately.  We  trust  the  illumination  of  experi- 
ence, which  will  lead  to  the  re-ordering  of  human 
society  and  the  deliverance  of  man  from  essential 
evil. 

Q.  Do  you  believe  in  Herbert  Spencer's  reli- 
gion of  first  principles? 

A.  I  don't  think  Herbert  Spencer's  forte  was 
religion.     He  did  a  great  deal  for  his  time. 

Q.     Is  nature  more  destructive  than  creative? 

A.  If  she  creates  it  all  and  finally  destroys  it 
all,  I  should  say  it  was  about  equal. 

Q.  Do  you  expect  us  to  find  absolute  good  in 
the  infinite  while  we  still  do  not  understand  it  in 
the  finite? 

A.  We  must  find  out  at  one  and  the  same  time 
in  the  finite  and  in  the  infinite  what  good  is  attain- 
able for  us  men. 

Q,     How  do  you  regard  the  science  of  psychics? 

A.     With  great  sympathy. 

Q.    Could  you  advise  the  man  with  the  empty 


288  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE   MAKING 

pocket  and   stomach  the  wisest  way  to  seek  the 
good? 

A.  To  get  a  job,  work  at  it  well,  live  frugally, 
and  save  a  little  money  day  by  day. 

Q.  If  nothing  can  come  from  nothing,  how 
could  the  world  be  created  by  a  creator  who  came 
from  nothing? 

A.     I  never  said  so. 

Q.  Are  the  capitalists  pursuing  real  good  when 
they  are  living  on  the  backs  of  the  masses? 

A.  I  have  earned  my  living  since  I  was  eleven. 
I  have  met  tough  specimens  both  among  capitalists 
and  as  fellow-toilers,  and  I  am  not  going  to  inveigh 
against  either  class. 

Q.  Will  good  ever  be  attained?  Can  anybody 
ever  be  satisfied? 

A.  I  can't  say.  I  haven't  yet  got  there,  but 
I  am  forging  ahead.  We  gain  in  satisfaction  as 
we  know  more  truth,  see  more  beauty,  get  a  clearer 
sense  of  right,  and  are  met  by  a  profounder  con- 
sciousness of  love. 

Q.  If  economic  conditions  are  the  cause  of  evil, 
isn't  it  better  to  fight  the  cause  than  the  result? 

A.  Economic  conditions  only  aggravate  the 
suffering  of  the  world.  I  am  not  sure  that  a  rich 
man  is  not  more  in  danger  of  moral  damnation 
than  a  poor  man. 

Q.  Since  the  human  conception  of  truth  has 
only  a  relative  significance,  where  does  this  truth 
and  good  exist? 

A.    The  questioner  and  the  speaker  are  in  rela- 


J 


THE  SEARCH  AFTER  GOD 

tion;  the  relation  does  not  destroy  the  reality  of 
either. 

Q.  Considering  the  unsatisfactory  results  from 
our  churches,  what  agency  would  you  recommend 
for  the  training  of  our  children  in  this  idealistic 
good? 

A.  Some  of  you  idealists  here  come  and  help 
us  in  the  Old  South  Church. 

Q.  Does  not  discord  begin  and  end  in  the  mind 
of  man,  and  not  in  that  of  God,  and  is  it  not  use- 
less to  take  our  imperfections  to  God,  whose  mind 
is  perfect? 

A.  I  believe  that  a  progressive  escape  may  be 
had  from  the  discord  of  mortal  life,  and  that 
therefore  we  should  go  to  the  infinite  for  help. 


CHAPTER  VI 

FROM   ABSOLUTE    MONARCHY   TO   PURE 
DEMOCRACY   IN   INDUSTRY 

An  Address  Delivered  at  the  Ford  Hall 
Meeting,  January  17,  1915 

By  Reverend  John  Haynes  Holmes,  of  New  York 

I  ASSURE  you  it  is  a  great  satisfaction  for 
anybody  to  have  the  privilege  of  standing  on 
this  platform  and  addressing  you;  and  I 
speak  for  every  man  who  comes  here,  that  he 
would  gladly  make  dmy  kind  of  sacrifice  to  look 
into  your  faces  and  give  his  message.  I  count  it 
one  of  the  red-letter  nights  of  my  year  when  I 
come  here. 

I  come  to-night  to  the  discussion  of  the  domi- 
nant question  of  the  war.  I  suppose  this  problem 
has  been  more  or  less  obscured  since  the  outbreak 
of  the  war,  but  when  the  echoes  have  long  since 
rolled  away,  I  believe  the  minds  of  men  will  still 
be  grappling  with  this  problem  and  working  out 
the  solution,  —  democracy.  I  believe  no  problem 
can  be  understood  except  from  the  standpoint  of 
democracy.  It  is  the  one  goal,  the  one  aim,  in 
business  as  in  politics.     Not  until  we  understand 


FROM  MONARCHY  TO  DEMOCRACY     291 

that  can  we  understand  the  problem.  Here  in 
America  we  have  some  understanding  of  the  mean- 
ing of  the  word  "democracy"  in  poHtics;  and  if 
we  can  only  understand  that  we  have  to  do  to-day 
in  the  world  of  industry  the  same  thing  we  have 
done  and  are  doing  better  and  better  in  the  world 
of  politics,  opposition  to  the  changes  we  advocate 
will  melt  away.  People  will  understand  that  we 
are  trying,  not  to  destroy  society,  but  to  remold 
society  after  the  one  divine  design  to  which  all 
the  relations  between  men  and  women  in  this  great 
world  have  come. 

Therefore  I  propose  to-night  to  trace  out  what 
I  believe  must  be  the  step-by-step  progress  in  the 
field  of  industry,  from  where  we  stand  to-day  to 
where  we  must  stand  to-morrow,  before  the  march 
of  progress  ceases.  And  I  propose  to  interpret 
these  steps  exactly  in  the  terms  of  democracy,  as 
understood  in  politics.  I  believe  as  the  very  basis 
of  my  industrial  and  economic  faith,  that  the  same 
thing  that  men  are  doing,  the  world  around,  politi- 
cally speaking,  we  must  do,  sooner  or  later,  indus- 
trially speaking.  If  we  once  get  that  parallel 
clearly  into  our  minds,  the  whole  case  will  be 
won. 

In  tracing  the  development  of  mankind  in  the 
political  field,  I  must  do  the  thing  in  the  crudest 
way  imaginable.  I  know  that  all  these  steps  have 
not  been  taken  in  the  same  order  all  over  the 
world;  but  while  development  has  been  more 
rapid  in  one  place  than  another,  when  we  come  to 


292  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  M^VKING 

sum  up  the  whole  thing  from  the  standpoint  of 
the  race  rather  than  of  the  particular  nation,  we 
shall  find  that  on  the  whole  there  has  been  a  cer- 
tain line  of  progress,  and  a  certain  succession  of 
perfectly  definite  and  beneficent  steps.  It  is  these 
steps  I  propose  to  mark  out,  in  order  to  indicate 
exactly  the  thing  we  must  do,  consciously  or  un- 
consciously, in  the  field  of  industry. 

In  the  early  ages  of  human  history,  political 
organization  began  with  absolute  monarchy.  When 
the  original  tribe,  or  city,  or  state,  went  out  to 
fight  their  enemies,  some  one  man  proved  to  be 
the  best  fighter,  and  the  next  time  that  man  was 
chosen  to  lead  the  band.  And  little  by  little,  by 
his  prowess  in  war  and  his  wisdom  in  council,  this 
man  justified  his  leadership  and  was  finally  recog- 
nized as  the  king,  and  into  his  hands  were  com- 
mitted the  absolute  political  authority  and  power 
of  that  organization.  When  he  died,  his  authority 
was  naturally  passed  on  to  his  son,  and  thus,  little 
by  little,  the  institution  of  absolute  monarchy  came 
to  be  established.  This  institution  has  justified 
itself  in  the  past,  and  still  does  to-day  in  certain 
portions  of  the  world,  on  the  basis  of  the  great 
doctrine  of  the  divine  right  of  kings,  by  which  the 
king  comes  to  believe  that  he  bears  in  his  sacred 
person  the  seal  of  the  rule  of  Almighty  God.  And 
therefore,  even  though  his  son  be  a  fool  or  insane 
or  immoral  or  a  coward,  still  he  would  be  recog- 
nized as  the  divine  king,  and  his  decisions  would 
be  accepted  as  the  very  decrees  of  God  Himself. 


A 


FROM  MONARCHY  TO  DEMOCRACY  293 

We  don't  have  to  look  very  far  over  the  world  to 
discover  that  this  idea  has  not  wholly  disappeared. 
There  are  still  men  walking  this  earth  who  are 
fooling  themselves  and  thinking  that  they  are 
ruling  by  divine  right:  but  that  is  a  survival  from 
the  ages  of  barbarism,  and  the  modern  world, 
largely  speaking,  has  long  since  passed  out  into 
the  better  and  higher  eras  of  political  development. 
Now  the  interesting  circumstance,  industrially 
speaking,  is  that  even  in  this  great  democracy  of 
America  we  still  have  the  divine  monarch  with  us. 
We  don't  have  to  look  very  far  or  search  our 
minds  very  deeply  to  find  examples  of  this  type 
of  organization:  This  fact  came  to  be  recognized 
in  the  time  of  the  great  coal  strike  in  Pennsylvania, 
when  IVIr.  Baer,  president  of  the  Reading  Railroad, 
declared  that  those  mines  had  been  committed  to 
his  keeping  by  the  decree  of  God,  and  therefore 
the  output  of  those  mines  and  the  conditions  of 
labor  there  were  his  to  determine  by  divine  right. 
He  was  the  man  who  was  honest  enough  to  con- 
fess to  society  that  he  knew  he  ruled  by  divine 
right:  but  all  his  associates  in  the  world  of  business 
believe  that  all  the  time,  though  they  have  not 
the  honesty  to  say  so.  Only  a  few  months  ago  there 
was  a  great  strike  in  Colorado,  and  there  we  dis- 
covered that  inside  the  political  States  of  Colorado 
and  the  United  States  of  America  was  another  free 
and  independent  State,  which  did  not  recognize 
the  political  authority  of  the  Republic;  that  within 
the  area  of  this  State  the  will  of  one  man  was 


294  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE   IVIAKING 

absolute.  Let  me  illustrate  exactly  what  that 
meant  in  the  Colorado  coal-field.  There  came  a 
time  when  the  conditions  were  so  serious  that 
President  Wilson,  the  chosen  representative  of 
ninety  million  people  in  America,  decided  that  he 
must  interfere  and  try  to  bring  peace.  And  what 
did  he  have  to  do.'^  He  had  to  send  his  personal 
representative  or  ambassador  to  the  royal  court  of 
the  monarch  of  Colorado,  at  26  Broadway.  In 
other  words  in  order  to  have  dealings  with  that 
industrial  corporation,  he  had  to  do  exactly  as 
when  he  wanted  to  have  dealings  with  Great 
Britain.  And  then  note  the  remarkable  thing  that 
happened.  Whereas  Great  Britain  always  receives 
the  personal  ambassador  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  and  hears  what  he  has  to  say  upon 
any  subject,  the  king  of  industrial  Colorado  did 
not  choose  to  receive  and  hear  the  ambassador  of 
the  President;  and  you  and  I  were  treated  to  the 
delightful  spectacle  of  an  industrial  monarch  who 
could  dictate  terms  to  the  Democratic  President 
of  the  country.  This  is  an  example  of  the  will  of 
one  man  supreme  in  one  industrial  area,  in  which 
labor  and  live  thousands  upon  thousands  of  men, 
women,  and  children.  And,  as  the  era  of  absolute 
monarchy  in  politics  has  long  since  passed  away, 
or  is  in  process  of  disintegration,  so  the  era  of 
absolute  monarchy  in  the  field  of  industry  has  got 
to  go.  There  can't  be  any  compromise  upon  this 
point.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  divine  right  in 
the  world  of  common  men.     Therefore,  while  we 


FROM  MONARCHY  TO  DEMOCRACY     295 

laugh  at  emperors  and  czars,  we  are  looking  more 
and  more  suspiciously  at  the  emperors  and  czars 
in  the  field  of  industry,  and  we  are  searching  out 
the  way  of  getting  rid  of  them  exactly  as  we  got 
rid  of  them  politically. 

Now,  the  next  step  in  the  political  state  was 
that  the  absolute  monarch  was  succeeded  by  the 
benevolent  despot.  By  some  chance  or  accident 
there  came  to  the  throne  of  the  absolute  monarch 
a  man  at  once  enlightened  and  benevolent,  who 
looked  out  upon  his  subjects  and  recognized  his 
moral  responsibility,  and  therefore  consecrated 
himself  to  the  task  of  doing  what  he  could  for  the 
uplift  and  benefit  of  his  people.  I  suppose  some 
of  the  most  beneficent  and  beautiful  periods  that 
the  human  race  has  ever  known  were  those  under 
the  rule  of  the  benevolent  despot.  Carlyle  thought 
this  the  ideal  type  of  government,  under  the  man 
at  once  strong  and  enlightened,  who  could  do  for 
the  people  what  they  could  not  do  for  themselves. 
This  he  thought  the  point  where  political  develop- 
ment must  stop. 

The  same  development  is  beginning  to  appear 
in  the  world  of  industry.  The  monarch  of  industry 
is  realizing  his  responsibilities  to  the  working  peo- 
ple, and  from  his  knowledge  and  generosity  is  re- 
solving to  use  his  power  for  the  happiness  and 
welfare  of  the  people  working  in  his  factories  or 
mines.  And  we  can  declare  of  him  also  that  up 
to  the  present  time  there  is  nothing  in  the  world 
of  industry  to  compare  with  what  some  of  these 


296       de:mocracy  in  the  making 

great  men  have  accomplished.  When  I  speak  of 
some  of  the  great  industrial  magnates  of  our  time 
as  benevolent  despots,  I  am  not  making  any  in- 
vidious comparisons.  While  I  don't  believe  for  a 
moment  that  we  are  to  stop  there,  I  do  believe, 
as  a  man  who  tries  to  love  justice  and  generosity, 
that  you  and  I  ought  to  recognize  what  an  en- 
lightened and  benevolent  man  tries  to  do  when  he 
comes  to  some  recognition  of  his  responsibility  to 
his  employees.  It  has  been  my  happy  lot  to  visit 
the  "kingdoms"  of  some  of  these  men  —  Port 
Sunlight,  near  Liverpool;  Bourneville,  near  Bir- 
mingham; the  National  Cash  Register  plant  in  Day- 
ton; the  Ford  factory  in  Detroit.  I  would  like 
to-night  to  pay  tribute  to  the  things  these  men  are 
doing.  The  National  Cash  Register  plant  seemed 
to  me  more  a  university  than  a  factory;  and  in 
the  Ford  factory  nearly  every  man  gets  five  dollars 
a  day  at  least,  and  every  woman  at  least  sixteen 
dollars  a  week.  Neither  Mr.  Ford  nor  Mr.  Patter- 
son talk  much  about  divine  right,  but  they  love  to 
talk  about  human  right,  and  I  believe  to  the  best 
of  their  ability  they  have  established  the  best  kind 
of  organization  the  world  has  seen  up  to  the  present 
time. 

But  when  you  go  away  and  think  the  whole 
thing  over,  you  come  to  the  very  definite  conclu- 
sion that,  wonderful  as  this  work  is,  it  offers  no 
permanent  solution  of  the  present  industrial  prob- 
lem. In  the  first  place,  these  men  are  fortunate 
in  that  they  are  (all  of  them  that  I  know)  working 


FROM  MONARCHY  TO  DEMOCRACY     297 

in  an  industry  where  they  have  a  monopoly,  with- 
out competition.  When  you  consider  the  profits 
that  come  from  such  a  business,  you  begin  to 
understand  the  possibiHty  of  doing  such  things. 
But  in  lower  Fifth  Avenue,  in  New  York,  in  the 
garment  trade,  the  employers  are  in  a  business  of 
cut-throat  competition;  and  profits  are  so  low  and 
so  hard  to  get  that  the  problem  is  to  keep  the 
business  open  and  the  people  employed  at  all.  On 
the  simple  basis  of  bookkeeping,  they  haven't  the 
money  to  hand  out.  In  the  second  place,  these 
accomplishments  are  those  of  single  men,  who  have 
built  their  lives  into  them.  When  they  die,  their 
businesses  will  eventually  have  to  go  over  to  a 
corporation.  Now,  corporations  have  immortal 
bodies,  but  no  soul.  They  inevitably  display  the 
great  evil  of  absentee  landlordship,  which  has  no 
sense  of  individual  responsibility.  When  the  ele- 
ment of  getting  all  the  profit  possible  on  the  money 
invested  enters  in,  this  benevolent  despotism  is 
considered  as  merely  trimming  and  folderol,  not 
essential  to  the  real  question  of  making  the  stock 
pay  dividends. 

The  next  step  in  political  development  is  to 
limited  monarchy.  In  other  words,  there  always 
comes  a  time  when  people  begin  to  wonder  as  to 
the  wisdom  of  the  king,  and  get  a  kind  of  itch 
that  they  want  to  have  something  to  do  with  his 
government;  and  you  get  the  same  thing  that 
happened  at  Runnymede,  when  the  lords  and 
barons  in  England  insisted  on  sharing  the  king's 


298  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

power  with  him.  In  a  Hmited  monarchy,  the 
king  meets  with  the  representatives  of  the  people, 
and  they  reach  decisions  together.  This  is  illus- 
trated in  all  the  great  monarchies  of  the  world 
to-day. 

We  are  having  exactly  this  development  at  the 
present  time  in  the  field  of  industry.  Many  men 
believe  this  is  the  real  solution  of  the  problem.  I 
refer  to  the  trades  union  movement,  which  is 
nothing  more  or  less  than  limitation  of  the  power 
of  the  industrial  monarch.  In  a  trade  where  the 
trades  union  is  powerful,  we  find  that  when  a 
question  arises  as  to  hours  of  labor  or  what  not, 
it  is  settled  by  the  employer  and  the  representa- 
tives of  the  employees  together.  The  giving,  the 
taking,  the  collective  bargaining,  the  passing  and 
amending  of  measures,  is  the  same  both  in  the 
political  and  industrial  world.  The  people  who 
believe  that  this  is  the  solution  feel  that  the  time 
is  coming  when  the  employer  will  be  a  convenient 
kind  of  decoration,  like  the  king  of  England  to- 
day, who  is  kept  to  review  troops  and  open  public 
libraries.  I  suppose  that  sort  of  thing  has  taken 
place  more  or  less  in  some  of  the  great  organized 
industries,  where  the  real  power  is  centered  in  the 
trades  union,  and  not  in  the  man  or  men  who  own 
the  business. 

But  somehow  or  other,  in  industry  as  in  politics, 
no  sooner  do  you  get  this  development  than  people 
begin  to  wonder  as  to  why  they  should  have  a 
king  loafing  around  the  throne  anyhow.     In  Eng- 


FROM  MONARCHY  TO  DEMOCRACY     299 

land,  before  the  war,  I  found  people  actually  de- 
bating the  question  as  to  why  the  people  of  Great 
Britain  should  support  King  George  the  Fifth  and 
Queen  Mary  the  Four  Fifths.  In  the  field  of  in- 
dustry that  thing  is  decidedly  true,  and  the  same 
thing  is  happening  that  took  place  here  when  the 
American  people  got  tired  of  King  George  III. 
The  people  are  beginning  to  feel  that  they  can 
dispense  with  the  king,  and  you  have  the  next 
progressive  step  —  representative  democracy,  as  we 
have  it  in  the  United  States  of  America.  All  the 
problems  of  the  State  are  brought  before  the 
chosen  representatives  of  the  people,  and  there 
decided.  I  believe  that  is  the  next  step  in  industry 
after  the  trades  union  movement.  It  is  already 
happening,  under  the  form  of  what  you  and  I 
know  as  State  Socialism.  That,  as  I  understand 
it,  is  the  identification  of  the  work  of  industry  and 
of  politics,  the  discovery  that  the  machinery  of 
government  can  do  the  industrial  as  well  as  the 
political  business  of  the  people.  It  is  perfectly 
amazing  how  easily  the  transition  is  made.  This 
is  what  took  place  in  England  in  the  first  week 
in  August.^  In  the  period  of  a  single  week  State 
Socialism  was  established  root  and  branch  in  a 
kingdom  which  would  have  nothing  of  it  a  week 
previous.  England  proceeded  to  do  in  a  night 
what  she  said  could  not  be  done  in  a  thousand 
years.  The  railroads  were  operated  by  the  gov- 
ernment and  to   all   intents  and  purposes  owned 

1  August  1914,  —  at  the  outbreak  of  the  European  War. 


300  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

by  it.  The  products  were  taken  over  by  the 
government,  and  their  prices  determined  in  the 
Prime  Minister's  house  in  Downing  Street.  All 
sugar  in  England  is  now  purchased,  owned,  sold, 
and  distributed  by  the  government,  because  it  is 
necessary  to  the  people  and  cannot  be  trusted  to 
private  distributors. 

Now  I  say  to  you,  my  friends,  that  what  can  be 
done  under  the  exigencies  of  a  war  situation  ought 
very  easily  to  be  done  under  the  ordinary  exigen- 
cies of  peace.  England  may  possibly  do  this  thing 
to  protect  her  people  from  the  private  exploiters 
of  the  people  instead  of  from  the  Germans.  In 
other  words,  the  introduction  of  State  Socialism  is 
easy  when  you  have  got  to  do  it.  That  is  the 
step  that  must  be  taken,  —  representative  democ- 
racy in  industry.  The  only  objection  to  that 
transition  is  that  it  can't  be  done;  and  that 
objection  was  answered  five  months  ago. 

Now,  do  you  think  that  that  is  the  solution.'^ 
Have  we  reached  our  goal.?  The  average  man  will 
say  there  is  nothing  better  than  the  representative 
democracy  of  America,  that  there  we  have  the 
Kingdom  of  God  on  earth.  But  earnest  students 
are  not  so  very  much  impressed.  They  wonder 
what  has  become  of  the  democracy;  it  is  all 
representation.  There  are  certain  people  in  Amer- 
ica who  are  resolved  that  there  shall  be  a  restora- 
tion of  democracy,  and  that  that  restoration  shall 
take  the  form  of  the  elimination  of  representation. 
Our  representatives  are  as  unnecessary  to-day  as 


FROM  MONARCHY  TO  DEMOCRACY     301 

our  kings  were  yesterday.  Representative  democ- 
racy began  because  of  the  physical  Hmitations  of 
the  country  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago.  It 
was  impossible  to  communicate  quickly  or  to 
bring  the  people  together,  and  so  the  people  were 
forced  to  resort  to  the  expedient  of  representation. 
Now,  in  our  time  the  necessities  of  that  situation 
are  very  rapidly  disappearing,  and  it  is  mechan- 
ically possible  to  establish  a  pure  democracy  upon 
a  universal  scale.  By  that  we  mean  the  thing 
that  was  realized  in  the  New  England  town  meeting 
which  stands  as  the  crowning  representative  of 
democracy;  the  thing  you  have  in  the  Ford  Hall 
Meetings;  the  people  coming  together  in  a  single 
room,  talking  over  their  affairs  together,  and  de- 
ciding, every  man  having  as  much  to  say  as  any 
other  man.  To-day  we  have  the  telegraph,  the 
telephone,  the  printing  press,  the  newspaper,  trains 
that  travel  sixty  miles  or  more  in  an  hour,  the 
aeroplane;  and  while  we  can't  bring  the  bodies  of 
the  people  together  in  a  single  place  it  is  the 
simplest  thing  in  the  world  to  bring  their  minds 
together:  and  then  you  have  the  essence  of  pure 
democracy.  That  is  the  whole  substance  of  the 
progressive  movement  in  all  political  parties,  in 
which  Socialism  has  had  its  share :  —  to  make  over 
the  machinery  of  our  democracy.  The  referendum, 
the  initiative,  the  recall,  and  all  other  such  devices 
are  the  machinery  being  prepared  for  the  univer- 
salization  of  the  New  England  town  meeting. 
When  that  takes  place,  our  elaborate  system  of 


302  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

representatives  and  checks  and  balances  will  little 
by  little  be  done  away  with,  and  we  shall  have  the 
crowning  achievement  of  the  political  development 
of  the  centuries,  —  pure  democracy. 

We  shall  be  forced  to  come  to  just  that,  sooner 
or  later,  in  the  field  of  industry.  State  Socialism 
is  not  the  ultimate  solution,  though  we  have  got 
to  go  through  that  period  of  development.  But 
when  the  experiences  of  representative  democracy 
in  the  field  of  industry  have  been  learned  and  the 
mechanism  outgrown,  we  shall  be  ready  for  a 
thing  so  great,  so  beautiful,  and  yet  so  far  distant 
in  the  future,  that  it  is  almost  impossible  for  us 
to  describe  the  thing  it  will  really  be:  —  the  people 
owning  and  controlling  directly  the  machines  at 
which  they  work  and  the  products  which  they 
produce;  not  even  the  organization  of  their  own 
government  interfering  in  the  relation  between 
themselves  and  the  things  they  do.  It  is  the 
tearing  down  of  the  walls  of  the  single  home  and  the 
making  over  our  cities  and  states  and  nations  at 
large  after  the  pattern  and  design  of  the  single 
home,  where  all  work  together,  each  for  all  and 
all  for  each. 

That  means,  sooner  or  later,  the  elimination  of 
the  king,  absolute,  beneficent,  limited,  or  repre- 
sentative: it  is  the  thing  pure  and  unadulterated, 
—  pure  food  in  .the  field  of  labor!  People  will  say 
the  thing  can't  be  done;  but  the  answer  in  the 
field  of  industry  is  simply  the  experience  we  have 
had  in  the  field  of  politics;    and  I  wonder  again 


FROM  MONARCHY  TO  DEMOCRACY     303 

and  again  that  people  who  see  and  justify  the 
thing  pohtically  cannot  see  and  justify  it  indus- 
trially. For  what  has  happened  politically?  Sup- 
pose some  crazy  prophet  had  asked  Cedric  the 
Saxon,  in  Scott's  Ivanhoe,  to  go  into  the  pigpen 
where  Gurth,  the  swineherd,  was  sleeping,  and  had 
told  him  that  the  day  was  coming  when  his  political 
authority  would  not  only  be  shared  with  this  hu- 
man animal  but  would  be  taken  over  by  him,  and 
all  the  destiny  of  England  repose  in  the  hands  of 
that  wretched  man.  What  would  have  happened 
to  that  prophet  I  dare  not  say.  And  yet  that  is 
the  thing  that  has  taken  place.  The  authority  of 
government  in  England  to-day  is  in  the  hands  of 
the  coal  miners  and  cotton  spinners  and  swineherds 
and  farmers,  and  the  Prime  Minister  himself  can 
do  nothing  until  he  has  received  authority  from 
the  children  of  Gurth. 

That  same  thing  is  going  to  take  place  indus- 
trially. We  see  the  begrimed  coal  miners,  the 
wretched  men  and  women  in  the  factories;  and 
some  of  us  dare  to  prophesy  the  coming  of  the 
time  when  these  men  and  women  shall  be  the 
monarchs  in  the  field  of  industry,  and  no  one  shall 
exercise  sway  over  them.  We  are  answered  that  the 
thing  can't  be  done;  and  we  answer  in  turn  that 
the  thing  which  has  been  done  in  one  field  of  hu- 
man endeavor  can  and  shall  be  done  in  another; 
and  the  same  happiness  we  have  achieved  in  the 
political  field  will  in  the  name  of  God  and  His 
people  sooner  or  later  be   achieved   by   the  same 


304  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

method  in  the  industrial  field.  From  absolute 
monarchy  to  pure  democracy:  this  is  the  road  that 
must  be  traveled.  We  have  traveled  it  far  in  the 
State;  we  have  started  in  the  field  of  labor:  and 
sooner  or  later  we  shall  reach,  side  by  side  the 
same  great  goal. 

The  Questions 

Q.  Would  it  not  be  a  good  thing  if  the  foreign 
nations  should  change  their  rules  and  instead  of 
having  a  king,  have  a  president .f^ 

A.  I  tried  to  indicate  in  my  speech  that  there 
was  a  line  of  evolution  in  that  direction.  At  this 
very  moment  some  kings  are  going  and  some  presi- 
dents coming. 

Q.  If  democracy  goes  to  its  extremity,  would 
not  the  Socialists  want  representatives  to  go  to 
God  before  they  believe  in  Him.'^ 

A.  I  think  most  of  us  believe  in  democracy 
without  having  to  go  to  God  in  that  way. 

Q.  Would  it  be  possible  under  the  system  you 
recommend  to  value  the  full  product  of  the  man 
in  industry  and  also  of  the  minister  in  the  church  .^^ 

A.  It  seems  to  be  one  of  the  foundation  stones 
of  the  democratic  system  to  give  a  standard  for 
the  measurement  of  the  individual.  It  does  not 
mean  that  all  persons  are  equal. 

Q.  You  say  you  think  the  employees  ought  to 
get  together  and  demand  their  rights;  what  would 
they  do  when  they  got  the  answer  they  got  from 
Rockefeller? 


FROM  MONARCHY  TO  DEMOCRACY  305 

A.  I  do  not  believe  I  advocated  exactly  that. 
I  think  this  business  of  demanding  rights  is  tre- 
mendously overworked.  Rockefeller's  power  is  rap- 
idly diminishing  at  the  present  time.  I  should  be 
a  pessimist  if  I  believed  a  revolution  were  neces- 
sary; I  think  Rockefeller  will  vanish  in  the  natural 
working  out  of  the  democratic  principle, 

Q.  How  can  we  progress  at  all,  when  the  news- 
papers, which  are  backed  by  the  advertisers,  won't 
write  what  we  want  them  to.'^ 

A.  There  are  newspapers  to-day  that  open  their 
columns  to  a  remarkable  degree  to  the  word  of 
protest  if  there  is  anything  in  that  word  really 
worth   printing. 

Q.  Isn't  the  ignorance  of  the  people  responsible 
for  the  misery  we  have  around  us,  when  we  already 
possess  the  machinery  to  get  our  full  rights.'^ 

A.     I  certainly  think  so. 

Q.  Have  we  political  democracy,  when  the 
President  sent  the  troops  to  Colorado  and  the 
State  voted  money  to  support  them.'* 

A.  I  think  the  conditions  in  Colorado  are  de- 
plorable enough  without  casting  that  criticism 
against  the  President  for  a  necessary  act.  The 
Federal  troops  protected  the  miners  as  well  as  the 
mine  owners. 

Q.  Can  we  justify  the  anarchists  who  think  we 
ought  to  skip  one  or  two  phases  in  the  march 
toward  democracy? 

A.  I  don't  believe  so.  I  believe  in  the  step-by- 
step   method.     We   learn   only   by   experience. 


306  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

Q.  When  you  amalgamate  the  power  of  the 
State  with  that  of  the  industrial  despot,  won't  the 
people  be  in  a  worse  condition  than  ever? 

A.  Yes,  but  I  don't  remember  having  advocated 
that.  I  don't  want  amalgamation  until  the  gov- 
ernment is  amalgamated  with  the  people. 

Q.  Do  you  consider  the  Social  Revolution  a 
necessary  step  in  the  evolution  from  monarchy  to 
democracy.'^ 

A.  If  you  mean  a  method  of  overthrowing  a 
sj^stem  by  violence,  I  do  not  believe  in  it.  If 
you  mean  the  consequence  that  follows  from 
the  process  of  evolution,  I  beUeve  in  it  abso- 
lutely. 

Q.  Do  you  refer  to  communism  and  anarchism 
in  the  State  which  will  follow  State  Socialism? 

A.  I  don't  identify  those  terms.  They  are  as 
far  apart  as  the  poles. 

Q.     Then  will  communism  follow  State  Socialism? 

A.  Yes,  not  as  it  has  been  worked  in  isolated 
communities,  but  as  the  common  life,  lived  by  all 
for  the  benefit  of  all. 

Q.  Don't  these  benevolent  despots  like  Patter- 
son and  Ford  have  as  their  real  motive,  not  the 
welfare  of  their  employees,  but  the  prevention  of 
coalition  among  them  to  get  control? 

A.  Absolutely  no.  The  crucial  point  is  whether 
the  employees  have  the  right  to  organize  their 
trade;  and  in  both  of  these  enterprises  more  than 
fifty  per  cent,  of  the  men  are  unionized,  without 
any  protest  from  the  employer. 


FROM  MONARCHY  TO  DEMOCRACY     307 

Q.  Can  we  have  democracy  in  industry  while 
we  have  absolutism  in  religion? 

A.  No,  that  is  another  of  the  parallel  lines  of 
development,  which  I  did  not  have  time  to  eluci- 
date to-night.  There  are  churches  to-day,  such  as 
the  Universalist  and  the  Baptist,  which  are  pure 
democracies  in  their  government. 

Q.  Which  destroys  the  home  more,  the  Social- 
ists or  the  monarchs  in  Colorado? 

A.  The  old  yarn  that  Socialism  destroys  the 
home  is  so  ridiculous  that  it  isn't  worth  answer- 
ing. 

Q.  If  the  government  owned  the  industries,  and 
had  as  hard  a  time  to  make  them  pay  as  some 
employers  have  to-day  would  the  people  benefit 
any  more  than  now? 

A.  Under  Socialism  you  won't  have  to  make 
any  business  pay. 

Q.  Isn't  it  true  that  the  preaching  of  democracy 
may  become  a  dogma,  just  like  any  other,  unless 
one  works  at  it  to  produce  results? 

A.  That  is  unquestionably  true,  but  I  would 
rather  demur  from  the  implication  that  the  only 
way  to  work  for  democracy  is  to  be  a  party 
Socialist. 

Q.  If  we  could  get  all  the  people  together  in  a 
pure  democracy,  would  they  not  vote  to  give  the 
Philippine  Islands  back  to  Spain? 

A.  You  must  remember  that  the  Filipinos 
originally  belonged  to  themselves  before  they  be- 
longed to  Spain. 


308  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  IVLiKING 

Q.  Admitting  that  corporations  will  not  in 
themselves  solve  the  industrial  problem,  are  they 
not,  nevertheless,  a  passage  toward  Socialism? 

A.  Certainly.  One  thing  that  always  makes  me 
laugh  is  the  way  the  typical  Socialist  raves  about 
corporations,  when  they  are  the  nearest  thing  to 
SociaHsm  we  have  in  industry  to-day. 

Q.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  there  is  so  much 
democracy  in  the  warring  countries,  how  is  it  they 
are  all  following  one  man,  instead  of  not  fighting 
with  their  brethren  in  other  nations? 

A.  How  can  that  be  answered  except  to  say 
that  in  the  European  war  we  have  a  tragedy  so 
stupendous  that  it  baffles  explanation?  Socialists 
and  Christians  and  all  the  rest  had  hopes,  but 
on  the  first  of  August  the  whole  thing  tumbled  to 
the  ground,  and  we  discovered  that  we  are  more 
the  slaves  of  our  own  inherited  ideas  than  of  all  the 
kings,  bishops,  and  employers  in  the  world. 

Q.  Would  it  not  be  better  to  call  State  Socialism 
State  Capitalism? 

A.  That  is  rather  a  new  idea  to  me.  Perhaps 
we  don't  mean  the  same  thing. 

Q.  Doesn't  the  present  danger  to  society  from 
unemployment  warrant  an  immediate  transition 
from  industrial  autocracy  to  democracy? 

A.  Nothing  could  justify  it  more  truly  than  the 
present  hideous  conditions  of  unemployment.  I 
believe  it  would  solve  that  problem.  But  mean- 
while it  can't  be  made  this  winter,  and  that  being 
the   case,   with   people   starving   and   freezing,   the 


FROM  MONARCHY  TO  DEMOCRACY  309 

thing  to  do  is  to  make  the  city  and  State  and  na- 
tional governments  get  busy  and  do  something  to 
tide  us  over. 

Q.  Why  in  a  neutral  country  do  we  hear  so 
much  good  of  England  and  so  little  of  Germany? 

A.  I  spoke  of  England  only  because  I  know 
England,  and  do  not  know  Germany  at  all.  From 
the  industrial  point  of  view  Germany  is  at  least 
twenty-five  years  in  advance  of  England. 

Q.  Is  the  speeding  up  of  the  workers  at  the 
Ford  plant  injuring  them  physically,  as  an  offset 
to  their  extra  pay.'^ 

A.  I  made  inquiries,  and  could  see  no  such 
indication.  The  speed  is  absolutely  regulated,  and 
the  man  who  can't  keep  up  is  eliminated. 

Q.  When  Socialism  has  become  an  established 
fact,  who  is  going  to  perform  the  drudgery  .'^ 

A.  That  is  one  of  the  stock  questions  in  regard 
to  Socialism,  and  one  of  the  baffling  ones.  The 
answer  I  like  best  is  that  by  a  system  of  national 
or  international  conscription  every  man  and  woman, 
in  the  period  of  early  youth,  shall  be  set  apart  for 
one  or  two  or  three  years  to  do  the  dirty  work  of 
the  community. 

Q.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  propaganda  for 
Socialism  is  being  carried  on  by  people  of  all 
religions  or  none,  do  you  think  that  it  is  advisable 
to  prefix  the  word  "Christian"  as  an  attribute  to 
Socialism.'* 

A.  I  don't  believe  it  is  wise  or  really  means 
anything,  because  I  believe  Socialism  is  "the  eco- 


I 


310  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

nomic  expression  of  Christianity",  and  that  the 
adjective  is  unnecessary. 

Q.  What  right  has  the  church  to  justify  her 
existence  since  she  dares  not  issue  a  decree  against 
capitaHsm,  which  causes  conditions  Hke  that  in 
Colorado? 

A.  The  attitude  of  the  church  on  the  industrial 
situation  calls  for  all  sorts  of  explanation.  Those 
of  us  in  the  church  are  in  it  because  we  believe 
in  the  everlasting  reality  of  religion,  and  that  no 
human  problem  is  understood  until  it  is  understood 
from  the  ultimate  spiritual  point  of  view.  But  we 
bear  witness,  meanwhile,  against  the  abominations 
of  the  industrial  world. 

Q.  How  would  Socialism  deal  with  ineflSciency 
and  laziness  on  the  part  of  working  people.'' 

A.  "If  a  man  will  not  work,  neither  shall  he 
eat."  And  in  the  Socialistic  State  every  man  and 
woman  will  be  made  efficient,  by  intelligent 
education. 

Q.  What  about  the  investigation  by  the  British 
government  of  the  awful  conditions  in  Port 
Sunlight.^ 

A.  I  know  absolutely  nothing  about  it.  I  have 
been  there  myself  and  made  a  thorough  inspection, 
and  I  know  that  bad  conditions  do  not  exist. 

Q.  Did  you  question  the  men  in  the  Ford 
factory  who  were  getting  less  than  five  dollars  a 
day,  yet  have  the  extra  work  put  upon  them? 

A.  Fifteen  per  cent,  of  the  men  in  the  Ford 
works  are  not  getting  five  dollars   a  day.     They 


FROM  MONARCHY  TO  DEMOCRACY     311 

work  the  same  number  of  hours  as  the  other  men. 
They  get  a  lower  wage  because  "they  are  not 
worthy",  which  means  that  it  is  discovered  they 
spend  their  money  on  gambhng,  saloons,  and 
prostitution  instead  of  on  their  families. 

Q:  Do  you  think  the  world  half  realizes  the 
necessity  of  woman's  exercising  her  responsibility.? 

A.  No.  I  don't  thiiilc  the  world  has  waked  up 
to  that  fact  at  all.  We  all  know  that  the  problems 
of  politics,  industry,  and  war  are  never  going  to 
be  solved  until  women  have  their  share.  I  believe 
in  woman  suffrage,  not  so  much  because  it  is  the 
right  of  the  woman,  as  because  it  will  force  her  to 
recognize  her  responsibility, 

Q.  Don't  the  people  of  England  owe  the  Kaiser 
a  debt  of  gratitude  for  giving  them  some  measures 
of  Socialism.'^  And  can  these  things  be  kept  from 
going  back  into  the  hands  of  the  capitalists  after 
the  war.? 

A.  That  is  like  thanking  God  for  the  San 
Francisco  earthquake  because  they  could  rebuild 
the  city  on  better  lines.  It  is  possible  that  these 
things  will  go  back  to  the  capitalists,  but  I  pray 
to  God  they  won't. 

Q.  If  Socialism  is  the  result  of  evolution  in 
industrial  democracy,  what  is  the  value  of  the 
present  Socialist  propaganda.? 

A.  The  unique  distinction  of  man  is  that  he 
can  control  the  direction  and  speed  of  this  process 
of  evolution.  Socialistic  propaganda  directs  and 
hastens. 


312  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

Q.  Can  a  pure  democracy  be  established  on 
this  earth  until  a  majority  of  mankind  gets  into 
harmony  with  the  great,  unchangeable  laws  of 
God? 

A.  I  believe  that  just  such  a  change  as  I  advo- 
cate will  bring  men  into  a  proper  relationship  with 
God. 

Q.  If  the  majority  is  to  rule,  would  it  not  mean 
suffocation  for  those  individuals  who  are  superior 
to  the  majority? 

A.  That  is  entirely  possible.  The  tyranny  of 
many  men  is  as  awful  as  the  tyranny  of  one.  But 
it  is  necessary  to  deal  with  one  problem  at  a 
time;  ours  to-day  is  the  Socialistic  problem,  and 
then  we  can  turn  back  and  deal  with  the  individual. 

Q.  Under  the  present  capitalistic  system  can 
one  State  practise  Socialism? 

A.  Yes,  more  or  less  effectively,  just  as  one 
individual  can  practise  non-resistance.  But  the 
application  must  necessarily  be  defective. 

Q.  If  Socialism  is  applied  Christianity,  what 
method  do  you  suggest  for  bringing  together  So- 
cialism and  the  church  of  to-day? 

A.  An  increase  of  intelligence  and  common, 
everyday  human  sympathy  on  both  sides  of  the 
fence. 

Q.  Do  you  believe  that  the  average  citizen  is 
capable  of  passing  intelligent  judgment  on  all 
matters  which  now  come  before  our  representatives 
in  Washington? 

A.     I  believe  our  representatives  in  Washington, 


I 


FROM  MONARCHY  TO  DEMOCRACY     313 

if  they  fail  to  represent  the  people,  fail  because 
they  are  of  a  lower  rather  than  of  a  higher  grade 
than  the  average  man,  and  that  the  average  man 
is  free  of  those  betraying  influences  brought  to 
play  upon  the  man  isolated  in  the  legislative 
chamber  in  Washington.  When  we  have  pure 
democracy,  technicalities  and  details  will  be  set- 
tled and  handled  by  the  trained  expert. 

Q.  Isn't  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  be- 
coming an  outgrown  tool.^^ 

A.  The  American  people  owe  more  to  the 
trades  union  movement  than  to  any  other  indus- 
trial movement,  but  the  American  Federation  of 
Labor  has  long  since  gone  to  seed. 

Q.  What  do  you  think  of  ex-President  Taft,  who 
recently  denounced  the  initiative  and  referen- 
dum.^ 

A.  I  have  the  same  opinion  of  him  as  all  the 
rest  of  the  people  in  America  registered  two  years 
ago. 

Q.  Even  under  Socialism,  when  the  people  elect 
a  few  men  to  represent  them,  doesn't  the  minority 
rule,  as  illustrated  in  Germany  before  the  war? 

A.  Quite  so.  That  is  the  reason  I  don't  believe 
State  Socialism  furnishes  any  solution  of  this 
question. 

Q.  Is  not  the  pure  democracy  that  is  to  follow 
State  Socialism  exactly  the  same  thing  the  Indus- 
trial Workers  of  the  World  is  working  for  in 
the  One  Big  Union? 

A.    Certainly.     The  one  indication  of  pure  de- 


314  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

mocracy  we  have  in  industry  to-day  is  seen  in 
syndicalism.  But  the  trouble  is,  syndicalism  is 
mixed  with  so  many  extraneous  things  that  the 
real  beauty  of  it  is  obscured. 

Q.  What  are  you  doing  in  New  York  to  solve 
the  unemployment  question .f* 

A.  What  you  are  doing  here,  —  sitting  around 
and  talking  about  it.  We  realize  there  is  a  situa- 
tion, but  as  to  what  to  do,  I  can't  find  anybody 
in  any  seat  of  authority  has  anything  to  offer. 

Q.  Would  there  not  be  a  conflict  of  religions 
under  pure  democracy,  and  if  there  were  a  universal 
religion  what  would  it  he? 

A.  A  conflict  of  free  opinion  is  an  excellent 
thing.  I  hope  I  shall  never  see  a  time  when  one 
religion  shall  absorb  all  others,  but  let  all  the 
religions  join  in  spirit. 

Q.  Would  not  the  strikers  have  gained  more  in 
Lawrence  if  the  trades  union  had  not  mixed  in? 

A.  The  record  of  the  American  Federation  of 
Labor  in  Lawrence  was  one  of  the  most  regrettable 
incidents  of  the  strike,  and  proof  that,  as  I  said, 
it  has  no  vision  and  has  gone  to  seed. 

Q.  How  do  you  regard  Judge  Gary,  of  the  steel 
trust,  on  the  commiittee  to  solve  the  problem  of 
the  unemployed  in  New  York.^* 

A.  I  know  nothing  about  him  personally,  but 
a  man  of  his  type  is  not  the  man  to  solve  that 
problem. 

Q.  Was  Mr.  Baer  any  more  of  a  monstrosity 
than  a  whole  lot  of  us  who  teach  our  children  to 


FROM  MONARCHY  TO  DEMOCRACY  315 

respect  authority  and  the  divine  right  of  the 
powers  that  be? 

A.  One  of  the  failures  of  education  is  that  we 
do  not  teach  our  children  the  critical  habit  of 
mind;  not  until  we  teach  them  to  accept  nothing 
on  the  word  of  any  one,  shall  we  get  wise  and 
unbiased  judgment  on  all  questions. 

Q.  If  it  is  a  fact  that  fifteen  thousand  men  are 
being  employed  by  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Co.  to 
manufacture  war  materials,  would  it  not  be  well 
to  pass  a  law  preventing  the  sending  abroad  of 
such  materials? 

A.  Every  instinct  of  my  being  is  outraged  by 
the  spectacle  of  manufacturers  in  a  neutral  country 
shipping  ammunition  abroad  for  the  destruction  of 
human  life;  but  it  is  a  part  of  international  law 
that  a  combatant  in  war  shall  go  to  a  neutral 
country  for  ammunition,  and  for  the  United  States 
to  refuse  to  ship  ammunition  after  the  outbreak 
of  the  war  would  be  doing  exactly  what  Ger- 
many did  when  she  violated  the  neutrality  of 
Belgium. 

Q.  Do  you  believe  in  social  revolution  or  social 
reform  in  reaching  the  ideal  depicted  to  us  to-night? 

A.  I  suppose  you  mean  political  reform  as  con- 
trasted with  violence.  I  have  no  use  for  violence 
anywhere,  under  any  circumstances.  I  am  an 
absolute  non-resistant. 

Q.  Did  you  forget,  in  speaking  of  the  death  of 
absolute  monarchy  in  England,  that  the  functions  of 
absolute   monarchy   were   never   so   projected   into 


316  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

English  politics  as  in  George  V's  actions  in  the 
Home  Rule  crisis? 

A.  The  evidence  is  not  all  in  yet,  but  I  am 
inclined  to  believe  that  the  stories  about  King 
George  were  the  inventions  of  Sir  Edward  Carson 
and  his  crew. 

Q.  Can  you  cite  any  case  in  history  where  the 
rulers  have  got  off  the  backs  of  the  ruled  by  the 
process  of  evolution? 

A.  Yes;  1832,  the  English  Reform  Bill;  1867, 
the  Gladstone  Bill. 

Q.  Do  you  believe  the  capitalists  control  not 
only  the  newspapers  but  the  pulpits  in  the  churches? 

A.     Oh,  I  suppose  so  —  yes. 

Q.  How  could  the  policy  of  non-resistance  be 
applied  in  the  warfare  between  capital  and  labor? 

A.  I  am  engaged  now  in  preaching  ten  sermons 
on  that  very  subject.  If  we  understand  the  non- 
resistant  principle,  we  will  understand  that  the 
sheer  act  of  martyrdom,  the  willingness  to  die  for 
a  cause  can  accomplish  more  than  any  amount  of 
outrage  upon  others. 

Q.  If  ninety  per  cent,  of  business  men  fail,  do 
we  not  owe  something  to  those  ten  per  cent,  who 
have  succeeded  and  produced  a  product  which  we 
all   enjoy? 

A.  ■  That  depends  upon  the  circumstances  of 
the  man's  success.  But  any  business  man  of  any 
kind  that  we  find  making  a  reasonable  success  and 
animated  by  the  right  kind  of  spirit  should  have 
decent  recognition. 


FROM  MONARCHY  TO  DEMOCRACY  317 

Q.  How  are  you  going  to  allow  children  to 
work  out  the  problems  of  their  relation  to  the 
universe  when  they  have  not  parents  able  to 
develop  them? 

A.  That  is  the  pitiful  problem  illustrated  in 
the  immigrant  household.  It  will  not  be  settled 
until  we  work  with  the  new  generation  of  en- 
lightened parents  who  can  train  their  children 
properly. 

Q.  Can  you  give  us  an  adequate  reason  for  the 
attitude  of  the  Catholic  Church  toward  Socialism .f* 

A.  There  are  many  reasons,  ranging  all  the 
way  from  the  alleged  fact  that  Socialism  disrupts 
the  family,  to  the  fact  that  the  Catholic  religion 
is  based  upon  the  principle  of  authority,  and 
Socialism  upon  the  principle  of  democracy,  and 
the  two  can't  keep  house  together. 


APPENDIX 


APPENDIX 

FORD    HALL    MEETINGS 

SPEAKERS   AND   TOPICS 

First  Season   (1908) 

February  23.  Opening  Night.  (No  topic.),  Henry  Abra- 
hams, Edwin  D.  Mead,  C.  C.  Barry,  Robert  A. 
Woods. 

March  1.  The  Brotherhood  of  Man,  Prof.  Charles 
Sprague  Smith. 

March  8.  What  the  Jew  has  done  for  the  World  and 
What  the  World  Has  Done  to  the  Jew,  Rabbi 
Samuel  Schulman,  D.D. 

March  15.  The  Democratic  Gospel,  Rev.  Leigh  ton 
Williams,  D.D. 

March  22.  Three  Ways  of  Doing  Good,  Rev.  Thomas 
R.  Sheer,  D.D. 

March  29.  The  Relation  of  Modern  Christian  Life  to 
the  Social  Problem,  Prof.  Thomas  C.  Hall,  D.D. 

Second  Season  (1908-1909) 

November   1.     A   Man   and   His   Vote,    Prof.    Thomas 

Nixon  Carver,  LL.D. 
November  8.     The  People  and  Problems  of  India,  Miss 

Ehzabeth  S.  Colton. 


822  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

November  15.     Tolstoi's  Story  of  "A  Soul's  Besurrec- 

tion,"  Prof.  William  Salter. 
November  22.     Symposium:    "Socialism  as  I  See  It," 

Rev.  O.  P.  Gifford,  D.D.  (Baptist),  Rev.  Philo  W. 

Sprague   {Episcopalian),  Rev.   George  Willis  Cooke 

(Unitarian),   Rev.   Daniel    Evans,   D.D.    (Congrega- 

tionalist) . 
November   29.      Are   Our   National   Standards   Ethical? 

Prof.  Walter  Rauschenbusch,  D.D. 
December  6.     Life  —  And  a  Good  Life,   Prof.   Borden 

Parker  Bowne. 
December    13.      The    Tyranny    of    Majorities,    Rabbi 

Stephen  S.  Wise,  Ph.D. 
December  20.     The  Ethics  of  Saving  Bank  Insurance, 

Louis  D.  Brandeis. 
December  27.     Christmas  as  a  Social  Institution,     Rev. 

Albert  Parker  Fitch,  D.D. 
January  3.    Other  People's  Graft,  Lincoln  Steffens. 
January    10.     The  State  and   Morality,   Prof.   Charles 

Zueblin. 
January  17.    Reforms  Accomplished  by  the  British  Labor 

Party,  Keir  Hardie,  M.P. 
January  24.    Why  the  Church  Cannot  Accept  SociaUsm, 

Rev.  Charles  Stelzle. 
January  31.    The  Man,  the  Accident,  and  the  Railroad, 

James  O.  Pagan. 
February  7.    The  Awakening  of  the  Orient  and  What  It 

Means  to  the  Occident,  Prof.  S.  L.  Joshi. 
February  14.     The  Life  of  Daniel  Sharp  Ford,  W.  N. 

Hartshorn.      Lincoln,  the  Man  and  the  Statesman, 

Col.  Edward  Anderson. 
February  21.      New  England's  Lost  Leadership  in  Child 

Labor  Legislation,  Mrs.  Florence  Kelley. 


APPENDIX  323 

February  28,  Things  that  Separate  Men  and  Things 
that  Unite  Them,  Rabbi  Samuel  Schulman,  D.D. 

March  7.  Working  with  the  People,  Prof.  Charles 
Sprague  Smith. 

March  14.     Feeding  for  EflBciency,  Horace  Fletcher. 

March  21.  Unemployment:  Its  Cause  and  Cure,  John 
Z.  White. 

March  28.    The  Boy  and  the  Gang,    J.  Adams  Puffer. 

April  4.  The  Woman's  Portion,  Franklin  H.  Went- 
worth.  "Votes  for  Women,"  Mrs.  Marion  Craig 
Went  worth. 

April  11.  The  Religion  of  the  Crowd,  George  W.  Cole- 
man. 

TmBD  Season   (1909-1910) 

November    7.      Religion    and    Business,    Frederick    van 

Eeden,  M.D. 
November   14.     The  Fellowship   of  the   Common  Life, 

Prof.  Charles  Zueblin. 
November  21.     The  Moral  Unrest  of  Our  Time,  Rev. 

John  Haynes  Holmes. 
November    28.      The    Church    and    the    Workingman, 

Alexander  F.  Irvine. 
December  5.     Bernard  Shaw  as  a  Social  Critic,  Prof. 

William  Salter.  , 

December  12.     When  is  Marriage  a  Success?  Rev.  John 
'        Hopkins  Denison. 
December    19.      Religion    of    the    Common    Life,    Prof. 

Charles  Zueblin. 
December  26.     Holidays  and  Holy  Days,  Rev.   O.   P. 

Gifford,  D.D. 
January  2.    Commercialism,  Prof.  Edward  A.  Ross,  LL.D. 
January  9.     Has  the  Church  Failed?  Rt.  Rev.  William 

Lawrence,  S.T.D.,  LL.D. 


324  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

January    16.     The   Case   for   the   Workingman,   Henry 

Sterling. 
January  23.     Reforms  and  Reformers,  Rabbi  Stephen  S. 

Wise,  Ph.D. 
January  30.     The  Transition  from  the  Present  to  a  Co- 
operative Order  of  Society,  Prof.  Walter  Rauschen- 

busch,  D.D. 
February  6.     Can  the  Modern  Man  be  Religious?  Dean 

Shailer  Mathews,  D.D. 
February    13.     The   Case  for  the  Employer,   Jonathan 

Thayer  Lincoln. 
February  20.     The  English  Budget  and  What  it  Means, 

Joseph  Eels. 
February  27.     The  Hebrew  Prophets:    The  Creators  of 

Modern  Religion,  Rabbi  Samuel  Schulman,  D.D. 
March  6.    The  Search  for  Brotherhood,  Prof.  Edward  A. 

Steiner. 
March   13.     The  Life  and  Work  of  Karl  Marx,  John 

Spargo. 

Fourth  Season   (1910-1911) 

October  16.    Has  the  Single  Tax  Got  Anywhere?  Henry 

George,  Jr. 
October  23.     The  Church  and  the  Democratic  Ideal, 

Alexander  F.  Irvine. 
October  30.     The  Modern  Drama  as  a  Social  Force, 

Alfred  H.  Brown. 
November  6.     When  East  Meets  West,  Rev.  Arthur  H. 

Smith,  D.D. 
November  13.     What  Happened  in  Schenectady,   Rev. 

George  R.  Lunn,  D.D. 
November  20.     The  Church  and  the  Social  Awakening, 

Prof.  Walter  Rauschenbusch,  D.D. 


APPENDIX  325 

November    27.      The    Spiritual    Significance    of    Secular 

Vocations,  Rev.  Alfred  W.  Wishart. 
December  4.    The  Social  Movement  in  Germany,  Albert 

Sudekum,  Ph.D. 
December    11.      Why    I    Believe    in    Immortality,    Rev. 

Lyman  Abbott,  D.D. 
December  18.     Man  and  Woman,  Prof.  Charles  Zueblin. 
December  25.     The  Birth  of  the  Social  Idea,  Rev.  O,  P. 

Gifford,  D.D. 
January'  1.    The  Man  at  the  Bottom,  Rev.  Samuel  Zane 

Batten,  D.D. 
January  8.    "\Miat  Religion  Can  Do  for  a  Man,  Rt.  Rev. 

William  LawTence,  S.T.D.,  LL.D. 
January     15.       Wealth  —  Productive,     Predatorvv    and 

Parasitic,      Rt.    Rev.    Charles    D.    Williams,    D.D., 

LL.D. 
January-  22.     Education  Without  Srliools,  Pres.  William 

H.  P.  Faunce,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
Januan,'  29.     Stealing  as  a  Fine  Art,  Rev.  Her}>ert  S. 

Bigelow. 
Februarv'  5.     The  Dangers  of  Socialism,   Rev.  Thomas 

I.  Gasson,  S.J. 
February   12.     The  World  Problem  of  the  Color  Line, 

W.  E.  Burghardt  DuBois,  Ph.D. 
Februarv'  19.     Health,  Hygiene,  and  Happiness,  DeWitt 

G.  Wilcox,  M.D. 
February  26.     Symposium:   TMiat  These  Meetings  Have 

Done  for  Boston,  Meyer  Bloomfield,  Mrs.  Richard 

Y.  FitzGerald,  Edwin  D.  Mead,  James  P.  Mum-oe, 

Morrison  I.  Swift. 
March  5.     The   Get-Together   Basis   in   Religion,    Rev. 

James  A.  Francis,  D.D. 
March  12.    The  Sacredness  of  Property,  J.  W.  Bengough. 


326  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

March  19.     Does  the  Increased  Cost  of  Living  Mark  a 

Social  Advance?  Mrs.  Ellen  H.  Richards. 
March  26.     What  Women  Have  Done  in  Colorado  with 

the  Vote,  Mrs.  Helen  L.  Grenfell. 
April  2.     The  Bible  as  Literature,  Rabbi  Maurice  H. 

Harris,  Ph.D. 
April   9.     The  Social  Function  of  the  Press,   Norman 

Hapgood. 

Fifth  Season   (1911-1912) 

October  15.  What  is  the  Matter  with  the  Church?  Dean 
George  Hodges,  D.D.,  LL.D.  What  is  the  Matter 
with  the  People  Outside  the  Church?  Morrison  I.. 
Swift. 

October  22.  Woman  the  World  Around,  Mrs.  Maud 
Wood  Park. 

October  29.  Eliminating  the  Hoodlum  Element  Among 
Boys,  Albert  E.  Winship,  Litt.D.,  LL.D. 

November  5.  How  to  Make  Boston  EflBcient,  Comfort- 
able and  Beautiful,  Frederic  C.  Howe,  Ph.D. 

November  12.  The  United  States  as  a  World  Power, 
Edwin  D.  Mead. 

November  19.  Social  and  Economic  Conditions  in  Eng- 
land, Rev.  R.  J.  Campbell,  D.D. 

November  26.  The  Case  Against  War,  Pres.  David 
Starr  Jordan,  LL.D. 

December  3.  Racial  Adjustment,  Pres.  Samuel  C. 
Mitchell,  LL.D. 

December  10.  The  Church  and  Social  Justice,  Rt.  Rev. 
Charles  D.  Williams,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

December  17.  The  Man  and  the  Machine,  Pres.  Wil- 
liam H.  P.  Faunce,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


APPENDIX  327 

December  24.  The  Nation's  Human  Resources,  Prof. 
Charles  Zueblin. 

December  31.  Wanted:  A  Moral  Renaissance,  Rabbi 
Stephen  S.  Wise,  Ph.D. 

Jan.  7.  The  Significance  of  Insurgency,  Norman  Hap- 
good. 

January  14.  The  Working  Woman  and  the  State,  Mrs. 
Glendower  Evans,  Miss  Leonora  O'Reilly. 

January  21.  America's  Influence  Upon  the  Older  Na- 
tions, William  T.  Ellis,  LL.D. 

January  28.  Science  and  Immortality,  Prof.  James  Her- 
vey  Hyslop,  LL.D. 

February  4.    The  Living  Wage,  Prof.  John  A.  Ryan,  D.D. 

February  11.  The  Outlook  for  Temperance,  Harry 
Phillips. 

February  18.  The  Progressive  Spirit  in  Politics,  Ray 
Stannard  Baker. 

February  26.  Getting  to  be  Human,  Dr.  Charles 
Fleischer. 

March  3.  The  Message  of  Christianity  to  Socialists, 
Rev.  James  H.  Franklin,  D.D. 

March  10.  The  Claim  of  the  Decalogue  on  the  Modern 
Man,  Rabbi  Samuel  Schulman,  D.D. 

March  17.  The  Ethics  of  a  Newspaper  Man,  James 
Schermerhorn. 

March  24.  Scenes  from  the  Senate,  Mrs.  Emily  Mon- 
tague Bishop. 

March  31.  Am  I  My  Brother's  Keeper?  Stanton  Coit, 
Ph.D. 

April  7.  The  New  Schism  in  Socialism,  John  Graham 
Brooks. 

April  14.  Evolution  and  Religion,  Dean  Shailer 
Mathews,  D.D. 


328  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  MAKING 

Sixth  Season  (1912-1913) 

October  13.    The  Morals  of  Anarchy  and  SociaHsm,  Prof. 

Thomas  C.  Hall,  D.D. 
October  20.     The  Function  of  the  Jew  in  the  World's 

Economy,  Rabbi  IMaurice  H.  Harris,  Ph.D. 
October  27.     Christianity  and  Socialism:    Their  Larger 

Parallels,  Prof.  Walter  Rauschenbusch,  D.D. 
November  3.     How  Shall  the  People  Get  Pure  Food? 

Alfred  W.  McCann. 
November  10.    Concerning  Law  and  Order,  Prof.  Henry 

C.  Vedder,  D.D. 
November  17.    The  ?7w-Social  Evil,  Clifford  G.  Roe. 
November  24.     Giving  the  Boy  a  Square  Deal,  Judge 

Ben  B.  Lindsey. 
December  1.     International  Friendship  Instead  of  War, 

Baroness  von  Suttner. 
December  8.    The  Moral  Significance  of  the  New  Politics, 

Rev.  John  Haynes  Holmes. 
December    15.      The   Warfare   Against   Poverty,    Rabbi 

Stephen  S.  Wise,  Ph.  D. 
December  22.     How  Much  of  the  New  Order  is  in  the 

Present.''  Prof.  Charles  Zueblin. 
December    29.      God    and    Democracy,    Prof.    Charles 

Prospero  Fagnani,  D.D. 
January  5.     Are  the  Public  Schools  Democratic?     Mrs. 

Anna  Garlin  Spencer.     The  Local  Situation,   Miss 

Frances  G.  Curtis,  Isaac  Harris. 
January   12.     The  Moral  Asset  of  the  Class  Struggle, 

Prof.  Vida  D.  Scudder. 
January  19.    The  Awakening  of  China,  Dr.  Yamei  Kin, 
January   26.     Just   Taxation   the  Hope   of   the   World, 

Joseph  Fels. 


APPENDIX  329 

February  2.    The  Right  and  Wrong  of  the  Labor  Union, 

Prof.  John  A.  Ryan,  D.D. 
February  9.    The  Growing  Pains  of  Democracy,  Edward 

A.  Filene. 
February  16.    As  an  Immigrant  Sees  It,  Stewart  Ander- 
son. 
February  23.    Birthday  Night.     (No  address.) 
March  2.     War  and  the  Human  Breed,  Dr.  J.  A.  Mac- 

donald. 
March  9.     A  Successful  Failure:    A  Study  of  Robert 

Owen,  Prof.  Earl  Barnes. 
March    16.      Some    Suggestions    from    Germany    as    to 

Necessary  Steps  in  Social  Legislation,  Rev.  Levi  M. 

Powers,  D.D. 
March  23.     Lessons  from  Recent  Industrial  Outbreaks, 

Rev.  Nicholas  Van  der  Pyl. 
March    30.      The    Social    Message    of    Modern    English 

Writers,  John  Cowper  Po^ys. 
April  6.     Training  for  Leadership,  Prof.  Colin  A.  Scott, 

Ph.D.,  Miss  Mary  Mulry,  Miss  Lotta  C.  Clark. 
April  13.    The  Social  Value  of  Free  Speech,  Rev.  O.  P. 

Gifford,  D.D. 

Seventh  Season  (1913-1914) 

October   19.     Before   Socialism  —  What?  John   Graham 

Brooks. 
October   26.     The   Family   of   the   Future,    Prof.    Earl 

Barnes. 
November  2.    The  American  Gospel  Day  by  Day,  Mary 

Antin. 
November  9.     Advertising    and    Economics,  George  W. 

Hopkins.     Advertising  and  Democracy,  George  B. 


830  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE  IMAKING 

Gallup.  Advertising  and  Religion,  William  Shaw, 
LL.D. 

November  16.  What's  Wrong  with  the  Jew?  Rabbi 
Stephen  S.  Wise,  Ph.  D. 

November  23.  How  to  Socialize  a  Competitive  World, 
Rev.  Paul  Moore  Strayer. 

November  30.  The  Courage  to  Attack,  Peter  Clark 
Macfarlane. 

December  7.  The  Modern  Drama  as  a  Social  Force, 
Norman  Hapgood. 

December  14.  The  Social  Center  and  the  Democratic 
Ideal,  Miss  Mary  P.  Follett.  The  Social  Center  and 
Direct  Action,  John  Lovejoy  Elliott,  Ph.D. 

December  21.  Walt  Whitman:  Prophet  and  Democrat, 
Prof.  Charles  Zueblin. 

December  28.  Can  Religion  Be  Made  Scientific?  Rev. 
AUyn  K.  Foster. 

January  4.    Is  It  Fair?  Bishop  John  W.  Hamilton,  D.D. 

January  11.  A  Forward  Step  Which  Has  Been  Success- 
fully Taken  in  Fitchburg,  Miss  Margaret  Slattery. 
A  Fundamental  Difficulty  in  the  Way  of  Improving 
Boston's  Schools,  Mrs.  Richard  Y.  FitzGerald. 

January  18.  Why  I  work  for  the  Single  Tax,  Rt.  Rev. 
Charles  D.  Williams,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

January  25.  The  Strength  and  Weakness  of  Socialism, 
Prof.  Albion  W.  Small,  LL.D. 

February  1.    The  Gospel  of  Ellen  Key,  Horace  Bridges. 

February  8.  The  International  Mind  and  the  Inter- 
racial Heart,  Prof.  Edward  A.  Steiner. 

February  15.  The  Problems  of  Sex  Education,  Hugh 
Cabot,  M.D.  The  Scourge  of  Venereal  Disease, 
DeWitt  G.  Wilcox,  M.D.  The  Responsibilities  of 
Parenthood,  Rev.  Edward  Cummings. 


APPENDIX  331 

February  22.    The  Case  for  the  Prisoner,  Charles  Bran- 
don Booth. 
March  1.    Tolstoi  the  Man,  Rev.  Leslie  Willis  Sprague. 
March  8.     Uncle  Sam  and  the  Sons  of  Ham,  Mrs.  Mary 

Church  Terrell. 
March  15.     The  Challenge  of  Socialism  to  Christianity, 

Prof.  Harry  F.  Ward. 
Feb.  22.    The  Moral  Law,  Rev.  Frank  O.  Hall,  D.D. 
March  29.    The  Economic  Aspects  of  Woman  Suffrage, 

John  Cow^Dcr  Powys. 
April  5.     The  Press  and  Society,  A.  J.  Philpott.     Some 

Ethical  Aspects   of   Editorial   Work,   George   Perry 

Morris. 
April  12.    Religion  and  Social  Revolution,  Prof.  Thomas 

C.  HaU,  D.D. 
April    19.      Is   the   Woman   Movement   Going   to    Save 

Society.'*  Prof.  Walter  Rauschenbusch,  D.D. 

Eighth  Season  (1914-1915) 

October  18.  The  Message  of  Syndicalism,  William  Eng- 
lish Walhng. 

October  25.     God  and  His  World,  Mary  Antin. 

November  1.  WTiat  Work  Should  Give  us  Besides 
Bread,  Prof.  Earl  Barnes. 

November  8.  Energy  —  Undirected  and  Misdirected, 
Miss  Margaret  Slattery. 

November  15.  The  Child  and  the  City,  John  Lovejoy 
Elliott,  Ph.D. 

November  22.  Will  Democracy  Endure?  Rev.  Leslie 
Willis  Sprague. 

November  29.  After  Prison  —  What.?  Mrs.  Maud  Bal- 
lington  Booth. 


332  DEMOCRACY  IN  THE   ^LVKING 

December  6.     Is  Civilization  a  Disease?  Stanton  Coit, 

Ph.D. 
December  13.    The  Mihtary  Ideal,  Norman  Hapgood. 
December  20.     If  Christ  Were  to  Come  on  Christmas 

Day,  Rev.  Bouck  White. 
December    27.      Militancy    and    Morals,    Prof.    Charles 

Zueblin, 
January  3.     A  Message  for  the  New  Year,  Rev.  George 

A.  Gordon,  D.D. 
January  10.    The  New  Morality,  Rabbi  Harry  Levi. 
January  17.     From  Absolute  Monarchy  to  Pure  Democ- 
racy in  Industry,  Rev.  John  Haynes  Holmes. 
January  24.    The  Credit  Side,  Rev.  John  W.  Ross. 
January  31.     The  Economic  Basis  of  Democracy,  Prof. 

Walter  Rauschenbusch,  D.D. 
February  7.    Minimum  Wage  Laws  and  Their  Operation 

in  America,  Prof.  John  A.  Ryan,  D.D. 
November  14.     The  Newer  Issues  in  Democracy,  Louis 

Wallis. 
February  21.     Classes   and  Masses  in  the  England  of 

To-day,  S.  K.  Ratcliffe. 
February  28.     A  City  Finding  Itself,  Peter  Witt. 
March  7.    Wliat  Constitutes  a  Good  Jew?  Rabbi  Samuel 

Schulman,  D.D. 
March  14.     Socialism  and  the  War,  John  Spargo. 
March  21.     Woman  and  War,  Frau  Rosika  Schwimmer. 
March    28.      What    Irish    Immigration    Has    Done    for 

America,  Prof.  Frank  O'Hara. 
April  4.    The  War,  the  World,  and  the  Kingdom  of  God, 

Prof.  Charles  Prospero  Fagnani,  D.D. 
April  11.     What    Constitutes  a  Good  American?  Prof. 

Harry  F,  Ward. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Abbott,  Dr.  Lyman,  87,  325. 
Abrahams,  Henry,  321. 
Addams,  Jane,  229,  230. 
Allen,  John  K.,  71. 
Anderson,  Col.  Edward,  322. 
Anderson,  Stewart,  329. 
Antin,  Mary,  39,  40,  88,  161, 

192,  329,  331. 
Aristotle,  280. 
Attleboro,  Mass.,  69. 
Atwood,  Mrs.  Nellie  McLean, 

182,  183,  184. 

Bacon,  Francis,  277. 
Baer,  George  F.,  293,  314. 
Baker,  Ray  Stannard,  219, 327. 
Barnes,  Prof.  Earl,  329,  331. 
Barrie,  J.  M.,  250. 
Barry,  C.  C,  321. 
Bates,  Katharine  Lee,  99. 
Batten,  Dr.  Samuel  Z.,  325. 
Bellamy,  Edward,  163. 
Bengough,  J.  W.,  325. 
Bennett,  Richard,  90,  248. 
Bigelow,  Rev.  Herbert  S.,  325. 
Bishop,  Mrs.  Emily  M.,  327. 
Blanchard,   Mrs.    L.    E.,    170, 

171,  172. 
Bloomfield,  Meyer,  325. 
Booth,  Charles  Brandon,  331. 


Booth,  Maud  Ballington,  40, 

331. 
Bottom,  W.  v.,  71. 
Bowne,  Prof.  Borden  Parker, 

322. 
Bradlaugh,  Charles,  180. 
Brandeis,  Louis  D.,  38,  322. 
Bridges,  Horace,  330. 
Brieux,  Eugene,  91. 
Brockton,  Mass.,  70. 
Brooks,    John    Graham,    327, 

329. 
Brooks,  Phillips,  215. 
Brown,  Alfred  H.,  324. 
Brown,  John,   198. 
Browne,  Willis  Q.,  195. 
Buckle,  Thomas,  164. 
Bunyan,  John,  135. 

Cabot,  Dr.  Hugh,  330, 
Cabot,  Dr.  Richard  C,  71. 
Campbell,    Dr.    Reginald    J., 

326. 
Carlyle,  Thomas,  295. 
Carson,  Sir  Edward,  316. 
Carty,  D.  W.,  185,  186,  187. 
Carver,  Prof.  Thomas  Nixon, 

321. 
Chandler,  Louis  A.,  71. 
Chapman,  Rev,  J.  Wilbur,  215. 


336 


INDEX 


Chesterton,  Gilbert  K.,  99. 

Chicago  Sunday  Evening 
Club,  132. 

Chipman,  Miner,  194. 

Clark,  Dr.  Francis  E.,  231. 

Clark,  Lotta  C,  329. 

Cobleigh,  Rolfe,  6,  79. 

Coit,  Dr.  Stanton,  108,  134, 
327,  332. 

Coleman,  George  W.,  xv,  18, 
26,  29,  30,  43,  45,  47,  51, 
56,  64,  68,  71,  72,  78,  89, 
95,  114,  115,  120,  125,  137, 
144,  154,  176,  179,  180,  184, 
202,  203,  205,  214,  249,  323. 

Collier,  Miriam  deFord,  4,  43. 

Colton,  Elizabeth  S.,  321. 

Cooke,  Rev.  George  Willis,  322. 

Co-operative  Forum  Bureau, 
71,  72. 

Cooper,  Peter,  68. 

Cosgrove,  Joseph,  189,  190, 
191. 

Crawford,  Mary  Caroline, 
xii,  6,  7,  41,  72,  84,  151,  152. 

Cummings,  Rev.  Edward, 
330. 

Curley,  James  M.  159. 

Curtis,  Miss  Frances  G.,  328. 

Davis,  Philip,  201,  203. 
Denison,  Rev.  John  Hopkins, 

323. 
Dreier,  Thomas,  4,  26,  71,  203. 
DuBois,  Dr.  W.  E.  B.,  27,  35, 

325. 


EcHEGARAY,   JoSE,  250. 

Edison,  Thomas  A.,  216. 
Eliot,  Dr.  Charles  W.,  228. 
Eliot,  George,  134,  135. 
Elliott,  Ebenezer,  99. 
Elliott,  Dr.  John  Lovejoy,  87, 

88,  330,  331. 
Ellis,  Dr.  William  T.,  92,  327. 
Emerson,    Ralph    Waldo,    74, 

125,  188. 
Engels,  Friedrich,  236,  244. 
Evans,  Dr.  Daniel,  322. 
Evans,  Mrs.  Glendower,  327. 
Ewing,  William  C,  71. 

Fagan,  James  O.  322. 
Fagnani,  Prof.   Charles   Pros- 

pero,  20,  212,  259,  328,  332. 
Faunce,  Pres.   W.   H.  P.,  35, 

110,  141,  175,  176,  325,  326. 
Pels,  Joseph,  38,  324,  328. 
Filene,  Edward  A.,  38,  329. 
Fisk,  Everett  O.,  71. 
Fiske,  John,  164. 
Fitch,     Dr.     Albert     Parker, 

322. 
FitzGerald,  Mrs.  R.  Y.,  325, 

330. 
Fleischer,  Dr.  Charles,  90,  327. 
Fletcher,  Horace,  323. 
Follett,  Mary  P.,  330. 
Forbes,  Elmer  S.,  72. 
Ford,    Daniel    Sharp,    xii,    3, 

9,  10,  11,  12,  13,  14,  15,  16, 

43,   48,   56,   113,   230,   231, 

232,  323. 


INDEX 


337 


Ford  Hall  Folks,  4,  43,  44,  53, 

55,  120,  122,  123,  151,  167, 

199,  202. 
Ford    Hall    Foundation,    xii, 

xiii,  xiv,  71. 
Ford,  Henry,  296,  306. 
Foro  Italiano,  64,  65,  70. 
Foster,  Rev,  Allyn  K.,  330. 
Foster,    William    Horton,    5, 

45,  50,  71,  179. 
Francis,   Dr.   James   A.,    101, 

325. 
Franklin,  Dr.  James  H.,  327. 

Gallup,  George  Brewster, 

4,    17,    71,    203,    204,    205, 

206,  330. 
Galsworthy,  John,  250. 
Garfield,  Pres.  James  A.,  142. 
Garrison,  William  Lloyd,  163, 

196. 
Gary,  Elbert  H.,  314. 
Gasson,    Father    Thomas    I., 

91,  211,  235,  325. 
George,  Henry,  Jr.,  324. 
George,  WiUiam  R.,  201,  203. 
Gifford,  Dr.  O.  P.,  322,  323, 

325,  329. 
Goldstein,   David,   244. 
Gordon,  Dr.  A.  J.,  175. 
Gordon,    Dr.    George   A.,    39, 

213,  273,  332. 
Graetz,  Heinrich,  169. 
Grenfell,  Mrs.  Helen  L.,  326. 
Grout,  Louise  Adams,  70. 
Gutterson,  John  Harris,  99. 


Hall,  Dr.  Frank  O.,  331. 
Hall,    Prof.    Thomas    C.,    92, 

93,     201,     227,     321,     328, 

331. 
Hamilton,   Bishop    John    W., 

330. 
Hapgood,    Norman,    91,    92, 

248,  326,  327,  330,  332. 
Harbour,  J.  L.,  3,  9. 
Hardie,  Keir,  171,  180,  322. 
Harrigan,  Edward,  162. 
Harris,  Isaac,  328. 
Harris,  Dr.  Maurice  H.,  326, 

328. 
Hartshorn,  W.  N.,  322. 
Hartshorn,  Mrs.  William  N., 

11. 
Hauptmann,  Gerhard,  250. 
Heraelitus,  276. 
Heme,  James  A.,  257. 
Hirsch,  Dr.  Emil  G.,  220. 
Hodges,  Dean  George,  326. 
Hoffman,  Mrs.  Eva,  153,  154, 

155,  156,  160. 
Holmes,    Rev.    John    Haynes, 

212,  290,  323,  328,  332. 
Hopkins,  George  W.,  329. 
Hopkins,  Mark,  142. 
Houston,  Texas,  132. 
Howe,    Dr.    Frederic    C,   41, 

326. 
Hyslop,  Prof.  James  H.,  327. 

Ibsen,  Henrik,  250,  254,  255. 
Irvine,     Alexander     F.,     323, 
324. 


338 


INDEX 


Jordan,  Pres.  David  Starr, 

326. 
Jordan,  Martin,  173,  174. 
Joshi,  Prof.  S.  L.,  35,  322. 

Kelley,  Mrs.  Florence,  40. 
Kennedy,    Charles   Rann,   34, 

252. 
Key,  Ellen,  330. 
Kin,  Dr.  Yamei,  35,  328. 

Lawrence,  Bishop  William, 

323,  325. 
Lawrence,  Mass.,  70. 
Levi,  Rabbi  Harry,  332. 
Lincoln,   Abraham,   228,   286, 

322. 
Lincoln,  Jonathan  Thayer,  38, 

324. 
Lindsey,  Judge  Ben  B.,  328. 
Lipkin,  Edward,  45. 
London,  Jacob,  199,  200,  201, 

202,  203. 
Lunn,  Dr.  George  R.,  324. 
Luther,  Martin,  244. 

Macdonald,  Dr.  J.    A.,  329. 
Macfarlane,  Peter  Clark,  330. 
McCann,  Alfred  W.,  328. 
Manchester,  N.  H.,  69. 
Marple,  Clarence  W.  175,  176, 

177. 
Marshall,  Rev.  Harold,  5,  66, 

71,  72. 
Marx,    Karl,    236,    244,    246, 

324. 


Mathews,     Dr.     Shailer,     39, 

324,  327. 
Mead,    Edwin    D.,    321,    325, 

326. 
Melrose,  Mass.,  5,  69,  70. 
Mitchell,     Pres.    Samuel     C, 

326. 
Moliere,  251. 
Moore,  George,  271. 
Morgan,  Angela,  248. 
Morris,  George  Perr3%  330. 
Mulry,  Mary,  329. 
Munroe,  James  P.,  94,  325. 
Munsterberg,  Prof.  Hugo,  87. 

O'Hara,  Prof.  Franic  332. 
O'Reilly,    Leonora,    327. 
Owen,  Robert,  329. 

Park,    Mrs.    Maud    Wood, 

326. 
Patterson,  John  H.,  298,  306. 
Peabody,  Elizabeth,  193. 
Plato,  279. 
Phillips,  Harry,  327. 
Philpott,  A.  J.,  6,  74,  331. 
Pope  Leo  XIH,  241. 
Powers,  Dr.  Levi  M.,  329. 
Powys,  John  CowT)er,329,  310, 
Puffer,  J.  Adams,  323. 

Ratcliffe,  S.   K.,  332. 
Rauschenbusch,  Prof.  Walter, 

38,   62,   66,   109,    112,  322, 

324,  328,  331,  332. 
Raymond,  N.  H.,  69. 


INDEX 


339 


Redmond,  John  Edward,  281. 
Richards,  Mrs.   Ellen  H,  86, 

326. 
Roberts,  James  P.,  4,  35, 
Rockefeller,  John  D.,  Jr.,  304, 

305. 
Roe,  Clifford  G.,  90,  323. 
Rogolsky,   Freda,   81,   88,   89, 

192,  193,  194,  201. 
Ross,  Prof.  Ed-.vard  A.  323. 
Ross,  Rev.  John  W.,  xiv,  69, 

332. 
Rush,  Michael,  179,  180,  181. 
Ryan,  Prof.  John  A.,  110,  111, 

118,  327,  329,  332. 

Sackmaky,  Samuel,  88,   161, 

162,  163. 
Sage,     Philip     Everett,     1G7, 

168,  169. 
Sagamore  Sociological  Confer- 
ence, 121. 
Salter,  Prof.  William,  90,  229, 

322,  332. 
Schermerhorn,  James,  327. 
Schiff,  Jacob,  158. 
Schulman,    Dr.    Samuel,    38, 

84,  85,  216,  321,  323,  324, 

327,  332. 
Schwimmer,   Rosika,    35,    40, 

332. 
Scott,  Dr.  Colin  A.,  329. 
Scott,  Sir  Walter,  303. 
Scudder,  Prof.  Vida  D.,  328. 
Seymour,  Dr.  Robert  G.,  233. 
Shakespeare,  193,  251,  253. 


Shaw,  Bernard,  250,  253. 
Shaw,  Dr.  William,  330. 
Slattery,    Margaret,    61,    330, 

331. 
Sheer,  Dr.  Thomas  R.,  321. 
Small,  Prof.  Albion  W.,  330. 
Smith,  Dr.  Arthur  H.,  324. 
Smith,    Charles    Sprague,    20, 

165,  321,  323. 
Solomon,  Hyman,  86. 
Spargo,  John,    158,    180,   324, 

332. 
Spencer,    IVIrs.    Anna    Garlin, 

328. 
Spencer,  Herbert,  287. 
Sprague,    Rev.    Leslie    Willis, 

62,  331. 
Sprague,  Rev.  Philo  W.,  322. 
Steffens,  Lincoln,  322. 
Steiner,  Prof.  Edward  A.,  109. 

138,  324,  330. 
Stelzle,  Rev.  Charles,  322. 
Sterling,  Henry,  324. 
Strayer,  Rev.  Paul  Moore,  69, 

330. 
Sudekum,  Dr.  Albert,  325. 
Sudermann,     Hermann,     250, 

252. 
Sullivan,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  J., 

164,  165. 
Sumner,  Charles,  193. 
Swift,   Morrison   I.,  325,  326. 

Taft,  William  Howard,  313. 
Terrell,  Mary  Church,  331. 
Tolstoi,  Leo,  90,  229,  252,  331. 


340 


INDEX 


Urbanski,  Frank,  101,  102. 
Ury,  Mabel  B.,  72. 

Van  der  Pyl,  Rev.  Nicholas, 

329. 
van     Eeden,    Dr.     Frederick, 

35,  323. 
Von  Suttner,  Baroness  Bertha, 

35,  40,  328. 
Vedder,  Prof.  Henry  C,  328. 
Voltaire,  270. 
Vorenberg,  Felix,  71. 

Wallace,    Alfred  Russell, 
Walling,  William  English,  331. 
Wallis,  Louis,  332. 
Ward,   Prof.    Harry    F.,    331, 

332. 
Washington,  George,  262. 
Wayland,  Francis,  143. 
Weils,  H.  G.,  132. 
Wentworth,  Franklin  H.,  323. 
Wentworth,     Marion     Craig, 

323. 
WejTnouth,  Mass.,  69. 
Wliite,  Rev.  Bouck,  123,  332. 
White,  Eva  Whiting,  71. 


White,  John  Z.,  323. 
Whitman,  Walt,  330. 
Wiers,  Rev.  Edgar  S.,  121. 
Wilcox,  Dr.  De  Witt  G.,  325, 

330. 
Wilcox,  Ella  Wheeler,  99. 
Wilhams,    Alfred,     157,     158, 

159,   160. 
Williams,  Bishop  Charles,  325, 

326,  330. 

Williams,  Dr.  Leigh  ton,  321. 
Wilson,   Butler  R.,   195,    196, 

197,  198. 
Wilson,  Woodrow,  294,  -305. 
Winship,  Dr.  Albert  E.,  326. 
Winter,  William,  252. 
Wise,    Dr.    Stephen    S.,    38, 

108,  124,  161,  215,  322,  324, 

327,  328,  330. 

Wishart,  Rev.  Alfred  W.,  325. 
Witt,  Peter,  332. 
Woods,  Robert  A.  321, 

Zangwill,  Israel,  79. 
Zuebhn,     Prof.     Charles,     38, 

72,  109,  129,  322,  323,  325, 

327,  328,  330,  332. 


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